Yes I missed a week. My Nana said “I am getting eye strain looking for your latest blog or even a tiny bit of news from the South.”

I thought I wouldn’t bore you with last week as there really isn’t anything to report. Unless you want to know about how many fingernails we chewed off or hair we pulled out in anticipation! Just kidding the waiting wasn’t annoying more than stressful.

Rowan and I did another ACC motorbike training day. Afterwards Rowan went for his restricted license and passed! Wahoo. Mine is booked for later in the month. I have been getting on the motorbike as much as possible to get as much practice as possible.

On Monday we got a call from Dean to say we have the results (looking good) but we must wait for James to advise from here. On Tuesday we get another call to say we can proceed but we are changing how we back fill the blocks. I quickly call the council to ask for an inspection for tomorrow if possible but more likely Monday. Lucky for us they have time to come check it out, wahoo.

Rowan and I meet Tony and he is happy with everything that has been done. He joked and asked if this is the garage and where is the house? I don’t think anyone in the area has ever built so compact before!

Friday we are able to organise builder, pump and concrete. It all goes pretty smoothly. Though we don’t have quite enough for the second site so the footings are at 250mm rather than 300mm. Not an issue at all as we only need to be 200mm.

On Saturday Cory, Rowan and I spend the day taking off the boxing and cleaning it. It took longer than I hoped for but we got it all done.

An early Monday. Rowan and I head off early into Ōamaru to drop Jimmys new Royal Enfield Guerrilla off at the mechanics. He has already put 500 on the clock so it needed to be seen. We two up on the way back. It is my first time riding with Rowan on the back. I did pretty good. Just a bit slower as it feels quite different to normal.

I continue riding to Palmerston, Rowan takes the truck to meet Mark on site. He is our block layer. He makes it look easy. It will take him two days to do both sites. We ended up finishing off early and will pick up again tomorrow.

Also our frame and trusses arrived. Annoyingly we won’t need them until much later. So we will cover them up and keep them as protected as possible. The builder suggested we put them up on the other section of land so they are high and dry. Wouldn’t want another flood and to have them floating down stream!

Tuesday; we tried to keep our minds off the builds and got some jobs done. Look at our hot tub, it is coming along nicely! Finally got the IBC on the roof of the container and hooked up the bath properly. It took me a while to get the fire roaring but once I did it didn’t take long to heat up. Look at all the rust from the inside of the fire. I got a tan while I bathed haha. Our awesome neighbour Andy gave us a heap of blue cod. Fresh out of the ocean today, man it was delicious and it lasted us two meals. We have great neighbours here, now that we have gotten compost and fish from Andy and Kathy I better think of a koha for them.

At last we heard from Dean, looks like lab results won’t be here until next week. Which probably means Tuesday since Monday is a public holiday.

When there is nothing to do but wait you may as well go away. We never made it to Queenstown last trip so let’s go now. On Wednesday we made it to Lake Dunstan. Do you like my oversized glitter rubber ducky I got in Alex? It is a perfect bath toy!

Thursday was absolutely deliciously miserable, the rain was not giving in. That did not dampen our spirits. We headed out to the Routeburn and ended up here two nights. Look at the little South Island Robin. Handsome fellow.

Friday the weather cleared. Rowan wanted to jump into the river to look at rocks (can’t take them home just look lol). I thought I may do a warmer activity. I did a scenic loop from the Routeburn Track with my camera. I captured a few birds. Lots of people out and about doing the same thing so it was hard at times to capture as they scared them away. However I had a lovely walk, which took me a bit of time because I kept stopping haha.

Saturday; we are not sure if we will go all the way back today or we will stop part way. On our way out of Queenstown just before the Kawarau Gorge the snow started hitting us, Rowan and I got very excited. You could see it settling above us on the mountains. As we got further and further it was everywhere. We stopped for photos and I had the silly idea to throw a snowball. I should have known better. Rowan got me right in my ear. I was not impressed! He couldn’t just aim for the torso like a normal person. Talk about turn some fun into me annoyed. As you know I don’t hold a grudge. I nearly lost my phone in the snow. Luckily Rowan noticed it. I had my glasses off so couldn’t see a thing haha. So off we set and it really was a winter wonderland. It wasn’t snowing in Cromwell but Alexandra was and most of the way home. Rowan and I have been meaning to stop into the Blue Lake and Saint Bathans for a long time. The snow was heavy there and it was fantastic. We did get home in the end. I am so glad we got to experience the snow this year. I thought we had run out of time.

Sunday and Monday we got jobs done around Herbert. The list appears to grow even though we are ticking things off. I had an amazing hot bath in the rain it was a great sensation. Hopefully get some news tomorrow about our lab results. Fingers crossed!

Foundations, here we go again. It doesn’t feel that long ago we were putting the profiles up, but it was a couple of months ago now. We are finally ready to start the footings. The profiles need to be exact and the first few steps perfect. Can’t wait to have a base to build on. The footings are coming up 300mm and then one house gets two rows of blocks and the other one gets three rows. This will ensure both houses are high and dry.

Murray gets the Brough street house ready for inspection from council and we move on to Stromness St on Friday. We have booked in the concrete, the concrete pump man, the block layer, digger man, plumber and sparky. Everyone is lined up.

On Sunday, we went up to Jimmy’s farm and did a trailer load of firewood. This is his way of thanking us for the help for the trees. Well we are more than happy with that. It needs to dry out but that will keep us going for a long time! We ran around the rest of the day getting jobs done. By the time it was hopping into bed I was exhausted.

Monday; Rowan is getting sick so he is not much help today, but a lot more than I would probably be! So I am head lacky assisting Murray. We get the rebar in and ready for council. There is more bracing and small things to be done before the concrete is poured but at least the main bit is done. Rowan had a haltering afternoon and didn’t tell us until we finished. He thought we may as well continue as he won’t know the outcome for a while.

Turns out our engineer is not happy with the testing of the ground. Dean (the tester) is adamant it is good and that James is using old readings. It is all a bit confusing, basically the engineer isn’t happy and we now have to wait to see what is next.

Best case scenario: James accepts Deans testing and newer readings that are different from what he uses.

Medium case scenario: Dean takes a sample from the quarry and gets it lab tested and we have now pleased the engineer.

Worse case scenario: the test comes back not to James’s liking and we have to take down all of work we have done for the past week. I assume dig out some of the gravel or all of the gravel and start again.

Welcome to our nightmare!

Wow what a week. First of all let’s get the Aurora in first! Exactly 5 months later we get an epic display, it was quite different from May. The colours were harder to see (thanks to the moon) but the amazing dance show was spectacular. We put on some classic music and just stared in awe!

Our week got changed as it went along. The builder did his back in so we won’t be starting until till next week now. This did mean we could get a lot done in Herbert and go away for a trip south.

We got all the citrus trees in the ground. We also got all of the walnuts on the other side. Cory was a major help getting the walnuts in! We will have a lot of delicious fruit in our future. I finished sealing the bar leaner and school bench. Painted the IBC tank. Rowan fixed the awning on Camele and did a lot of other jobs. It feels really good to be getting all this done.

On Thursday we headed south. We had quite a day. We had a meeting with Brenda our house designer. A few other small jobs in Ōamaru before we got back to Herbert and packed up Camele to go. On our way south we stopped at a few places we have wanted to visit for months. It is the usual scenario “next time, we have a lot to do today.” First stop was Otago Fresh Milk. Absolutely delicious milk and we got to pay the lambs and the calves. Next stop was Evansdale cheese and Matanka meats. Our final visit to a business was the famous Bowling Club in Dunedin. They do $4 main meals, $3 desserts. Everything is vegan or vegetarian. Extremely tasty, great for the community. They give away hundreds of meals to those in need in the area. We were well impressed. It was fairly early when we got there and the line was long. I am sure it gets longer at dinner time. I can’t recommend the place more, if you’re in Dunedin get your butt there. Cheap meal, pay double and pay it forward. We had our dinner in Waihola and stayed down at the Toko Mouth Domain. You can see the damage from the flooding everywhere!

Friday, we stayed as close to the coast as we could from Toko and decided to go inland to Balclutha to cross the river and then head out to the sea again. We did not make it all the way as a lovely farmer told us the road ahead would not be passable with our camper. Unfortunately that means we can’t quite get the Clutha river mouth, but we get pretty close. In Balclutha we get some breakfast and fill our tanks with water. We head to Kaka Point from there. We haven’t done this part of the area before, we get out to the Nugget Point Lighthouse and walk out to check it out. Absolutely stunning day and the walk was a good stretch of the legs. We needed up stopping at Tunnel Hill and Barrs Falls too. The day disappeared so we thought we better get ourselves to Waipapa Point. There is supposed to be a spectacular display of the Aurora tonight. It did not let us down. Wow it was an incredible sight! The movement was fantastic, I couldn’t keep up with how fast it was changing. A fantastic end to a fantastic day.

On Saturday, we didn’t go far. We went out to Curio Bay. Rowan went to the beach I went into the forest walk. By the time I finished Rowan was coming back. I planned on meeting him down at the beach. He said he was mobbed by sandflies and it wasn’t pleasant. So we headed to Slop Point. We didn’t bother walking all the way out, we have been at the southern point before. We headed out further and considered staying the night there but decided to go back to Weir Beach where it should be a good spot to stay. The weather was uninspiring, the decision was made to have an easy afternoon camped up.

Sunday is a day of rest. Rowan and I lazed about until the afternoon. It was wet and pretty gross out there. I invented a German lady in but she politely declined. She is travelling NZ in her car. By the afternoon we hadn’t heard from the builder so we took off to Piano Flat. This is a hidden gem I had heard about a while ago and wanted to explore. It is a well kept secret or something like that! Beautiful forests and a lovely river. All DOC owned and well maintained. We found a quiet spot to camp up and it felt like we were in the river. Tomorrow we will head to Queenstown and hang out there a few days.

Way out of Piano Flat I get signal and a message. Builder is coming tomorrow. Bugger, we make the decision to head home. We head back to Gore and make our way north. We arrive in Blueskin just after 3pm to pick up two walnut trees. By the time we get back to Herbert I don’t have the energy to put them in the ground. A

It’s Tuesday, we are heading down to get these sites done. We organised a compactor again with Skevingtons and unfortunately it fell through, so we wasted half of the day not being able to compact but we did the best we could. Hireworks brought a compactor out to us but it didn’t arrive till 1pm. Chris carried load after load of the gravel with his truck. Because of the lack of compactor we can’t finish today. However Chris has finished his part, we just need to compact the ground sufficiently.

Cheese (boss at Skevingtons) felt really bad and dropped off a compactor on Wednesday morning for us to use. Rowan and I had a compactor each on Wednesday morning, we put our headphones on and walked back and forth, 16 passes each and one pass is counted if you go back and forth in the same spot. Of course you must overlap too! The amazing Dean came down around 11am to test the ground and make sure it is compacted enough for the engineer! The pad Rowan was doing needed a little bit more but it is not surprising when his compactor is tiny compared to the big pink one I was using. Do you like my colour coordination?

Thursday and Friday the rain came, it wasn’t so bad in Herbert and Ōamaru but Dunedin and Palmerston was hit heavily. Our sites flooded mostly due to a blockage in the drain. The water was backwater though which is not ideal but we didn’t have flowing water over our pads. We decided not to go down and look. I am glad we didn’t because not long after they closed the road. We got all these photos from neighbours and Facebook! Not much we can do from here just wait. Someone said that a blockage must have cleared because all of a sudden the water drained like taking the plug out of a bath. Luckily our neighbour didn’t get water into her place but some of the new builds further down got inundated.

We asked the council when submitting our plans if we need to build to a certain height, apparently no. Yet they have told people on land like ours it is their fault for buying low lying land. Also it has been put on the owners next to the drain to keep them clear. Well that is just not going to happen, some people will but all it takes is one person not keeping it tidy. We planned to go down on Saturday morning and check out the damage, but the road stayed closed until 1pm. Rowan, Jim and I ended up riding in the dark rainy morning into Ōamaru for a McDonald’s breakfast haha. Then we sat around by his fire and stayed warm.

On Sunday Rowan and I decided to go the local markets and check out Palmy too. We got to Blueskin and had breakfast at the nursery and ended up spending $700 on plants. We got 8 walnut trees, 2 olives, a finger lime, a yuzu and a bay leaf. We will have a lovely orchard in no time!

Luckily for us there was no damage to our house pads, we did loose surveyor pegs and a bit of our driveway has washed away. Rowan and I used photos to work out how high the water got, it looks like we will be well out of the flood waters once the footings and slab go on. We have the builders coming next week so we will double check that is the case.

Monday we ended up running errands and went down the Waitaki River mouth to look for stepping stones. They were all a bit small for what we want, but I got some to use as markers for the fruit trees. I wanted to get the plants in the ground but the weather has other ideas!

Done and dusted! We have handed over the house to the new owner Naomi.

We had a great day in Palmerston on Tuesday. It didn’t all go as planned as we had no big trucks delivering rocks but we managed with Chris getting loads. We would have finished if we had a big truck, never mind we will be back on Friday to complete it!

Well Friday never happened! It was too wet. Oh well we will try again next week. I am hoping to get this all done next week but we cannot control the weather.

We got more jobs done around Herbert! On Friday I got 100 natives in to create a shelter belt. I want more for the wet area below. We have plans for fruit trees and walnuts. Walnuts for their wood rather than the nuts.

I put terracotta pots in the baths to slowly water the herbs and lettuces. Well it didn’t work, these ones are sealed terracotta so they won’t seep. Oh well I will just need to shop around and find ones that will!

Here are the interior before and after photos!

All this snow has certainly dropped the temperature. We helped Jimmy plant another 150 blue gums. He has ordered 700 more! We have some big planting days ahead. Jim gave us some firewood and another great brunch. I don’t mind this arrangement at all! Haha

All this planting has gotten me off my but to order some plants for Herbert. I have ordered some large natives to make a shelter belt, something we should have done years ago. I am planning on getting some riparian plants for where the water runs. I just want Rowan to sort his bridge out first.

Herbert is coming along, we have cleared out the lean to and started again. It became a dumping ground. We also emptied the container and restacked it as it became unusable. We finally have a use for the old rain water tank, it is now firewood storage.

There is one more load of stuff from Till St to get. We cleared most of it. We helped out Leona and got some drone photos for a property she is selling. Unfortunately the weather is holding us up for Palmerston but we hope to start next week.

Rowan and I managed to get the heavy stainless steel milk vat onto the trailer and took it into town to the engineers to weld up. Yay, we should have a hot tub soon!

Now I will spam you with heaps of before and after photos of the exterior!

Wow that week went fast!

I won’t bore you with the day to day. But we planted 150 blue gum trees with our neighbour Jim out at his new place in Ngapara. It took just over an hour, not bad for a mornings work.

Oh we finally got a sold sign up on Till Street! We also happened to sell her a bunch of things. So that made us a quick $1k. Our friend Laura is selling off the rest for us and taking half. I am super happy that I don’t have to deal with it!

We took some stuff to Palmerston, but the weather has been too wet to start. We need a good week of weather before we start up again.

Because of Plamy on hold we got Chris out on his bobcat to finish off Herbert area. It looks so much better now. We also had Cory out again for some much needed assistance. We have started planning for the house truck to come down from Christchurch. We now have transporter sorted just need to be patient and see when they can bring it down on a backload.

Scott’s, a local brewery gave us a free keg. This will be a fire for our hot tub! I am excited to have a hot tub. We will take it to an engineer to weld up.

Tuesday we are flying back to Christchurch, we are staying with Rick and Liz for a couple of nights. Rowan has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. on our way to the airport we get a your flight is canceled message. Bloody Jetstar, we normally avoid them like the plague because of this. But the flights were very cheap we couldn’t resist. We carried on to the airport as we had to get our hire car back. Once there we realised Jetstar is lying and our flight hasn’t been cancelled due to weather as every other flight is still going. As we line up to see when we can next get out, it is not until tomorrow. The flight we were supposed to be on is still running it is now taking the 9am passengers. I ask the desk person why are they able to fly at our time and we can’t. We ask to see a supervisor but are told they won’t come. So we march over to airnz and book a flight for the afternoon. It is the cheapest one available. Back in line at Jetstar for a refund. The people behind us tell us on the speaker over the airport it was reported to be a fault with the plane and it would be delayed. The fault turned into cancellation. Now if Jetstar tells you it is because of a weather event they don’t have to pay, where if it is their fault they do. This has been written about several times and they keep doing it because one, there are no consequences. Two, because it is much cheaper as most people don’t question it and just rebook. So Jetstar you will be refunding me and paying me for the cost of my flights on airnz, thanks!

We get to Brooklands later than we expected but we made it! It is great to see Rick and Liz, they had a great holiday in Bali. Unfortunately Rick’s dad passed away just before so he had to hurry back to the UK.

On Thursday Rowan and I make our way down to Ōamaru. We attempt to see Jerry and Margaret but they are not home. When I message Margaret she said she tried to visit us today in Herbert haha. We catch up with Leona and have dinner. I ask her if my house will sell. She is pretty confident it will. The buyer is coming tonight to measure up for curtains. A good sign indeed.

Rowan and I spend the weekend on Herbert. It is good having some time to get things organised. Pete and Bev take our leftover Axminster carpet for their cottage they are doing up. They have done heaps of work to it since we were last here. It is looking great. Rowan and I really want to get Herbert more the way we want it so it is relaxing for us when we are here.

Monday, we have Cory here today. He is helping with jobs in Herbert. There are 3 baths I will use raised herb gardens. He finished off the garden edging, it is now looking tidy. Our week is only a vague plan at the moment as we are waiting for contractors to get back to us before we can really plan what we are doing. I get a few jobs done, I painted the moped that we got out of a garden in Timaru, Rowan put it on a stand. I started work on the pot belly stove. It has a few leaks in the water jacket. I hope the cement I used will do the trick. Won’t know for 48 hours.

Tonight we get told the due diligence clause has been satisfied which means we are unconditional wahoo! Till Street has now sold!

Sydney;

Well we got up to nothing really. We had a chance to cook and bake loads of food for Bette. The freezer is now filled with lots of easy meals for her to reheat. Joanne has gone to Europe for a month and a bit. So better will be alone for a few weeks with different carers that come throughout the week. We did get an offer on the house of $350k which we countered and the lady waffled. While she was doing that another buyer came along and it ended up going into a multi offer. So we now have a two week wait in place but the house will hopefully be sold. The lady loves it and is already thinking about curtains, that’s a good sign. Rowan ended up going to the doctor here for a check up and I tell you what there are some vast differences with our systems. First you have a Medicare card which means you can go to any doctor and still get the government discount. The doctors were available in 10min. They did a thorough consultation and tested for nearly everything. When it all came back Rowan has been advised to drink less. No surprises there. He already planned to do 6 months dry when getting back. So definitely going to do it now. Doctors orders. Now I am not saying the Australian system is perfect but it appears to be a lot less underfunded and stressed like our system.

Auckland;

We fly into Auckland and pick up a hire car. We head straight to Beachlands to stay with my dad a couple of nights. It is really good to catch up with him. Rowan cooked the second night some delicious beef cheeks. Sue was working late so we had a late dinner. We slept in the new spare room which was Alice’s bedroom.

Saturday we headed back into central Auckland and waited at Emma’s house for Clare to come. It is great to see my mum and sister. Clare didn’t know I was here, we were trying to make me a surprise but she told me she had an idea I was here. We are celebrating Clare’s 40th Birthday this weekend. We all go out to lunch and then I leave Rowan at Emma’s with the cat. We head out to get massages and our nails all done. Ellery, Emma’s daughter gets her nails done too and she sits very still and waits for the polish to dry. We all head back to the airbnb and catchup. My youngest sister Sarah is flying in from Rotorua after she finished work. We end up having Thai food delivered for dinner. We made our own paint and sip. We decided the fake flowers would be our inspiration. I am not sure my message went down well on top of my flowers. I thought it was pretty accurate.

Sunday we headed out for breakfast, nine of us in total. It is dad’s day, great to have us all together. It is very rare now that we are all together, I am mostly the missing one haha. From the cafe Rowan and I head to Whangaparāoa to see Nana. We meet at Runamuck first to see the progress. It is all growing back nicely. My aunty Deb and Uncle Sam are up here too. They are not staying the night at Nans, tonight it will just be us three. Nana is exactly the same, I can barely keep up with her. We all go out for a nice meal at a local Italian place. It was very good. Rowan and I do a few little jobs around the place and I fill all the salt and pepper grinders, that was grandpas job.

Monday; We catch up with Rowan’s cousin Lynne who lives out in Stillwater. I met her at Mudgee family trip a year ago. It was great to catch up with her. Tonight we are staying with Emma and Paul. We planned to stay with Nana but the timing was bad for our flight, we would have been stuck in traffic.