Tony came out to help us with the truck. Well we got more done than I expected. We lined the inside with the cheap Oregon we got from Palmerston. It smells wonderful and looks great. we used left over expos insulation from our houses.

Look at these awesome puff balls we found. Yum yum! We have been having mushrooms with every meal. There is just so many of them!

Rowan and I pulled finger to finish off jobs with the truck. I got that luton cleaned out and Rowan finished off the doors for the window. We put the mattress inside and viola. We have a bedroom.

Late Thursday night Rowan booked tickets to Sydney. Bette has osteoporosis and is healing nicely but would like a visit. Rowan is just going for a couple of days. Then in April we should have more time to both be able to visit and stay longer.

At 1am I gave up trying to sleep in the camper and went to the truck. Rowan was struggling to get to sleep and I was struggling staying asleep. Man it is comfortable to be in a real bed again.

Rowan leaves Saturday morning on an early flight. So today we do a couple of jobs before he goes up and stays the night at Rick & Liz’s.

We offered help to our neighbour Jim. His sister in law is having trouble with her driveway draining. We get up early have breakfast and get the job done in an hour. Between us all it doesn’t take long to break up the AP and shovel it into our trailer. Jim will reuse the gravel somewhere.

Rowan and I then head to Palmerston to see Graham and Vaughan. It was a very productive meeting and we are all now on the same page.

A quick run down… Murray who has been the main builder is now not allowed to be working on our houses. We tried last year and he was supposed to come back this year with Graham being the lead builder. Well it just hasn’t worked out. We told Tama that we don’t want him no more and to send someone else. Now we have Graham and Vaughan who I am sure will work alongside us to get this done. Rowan and I feel much better about the situation.

Rowan leaves around lunchtime on his motorbike. I get a few jobs done around Herbert. Then head in to buy paint and go out to the movies. I saw Snow White, which was pretty good. It was for a fundraiser for Easter camp.

Saturday morning. I get to check out Macraes Mine. Rowan is sad that he is missing out. There is over 1000 people going through today and we booked the earliest time of 9am. I am glad we did as it did get busy pretty quick. We got to check out some machinery. One of the 5 holes in the ground. They eventually dig to roughly 300m (depending on what they find. It is 35 years old and they reckon it will be going till 2050 at least.

That big digger thing is actually electric!

We also got a tour of where they process the rock and pull out the gold. It takes 4 people to run this area. The whole mine runs 24hr a day 7 days a week year around. 700 staff working on 7 days on 7 days off shifts. Processing 800 tons an hour. They process 2.4 million dollars worth of gold a day. Roughly one large bar. They use 60,000L of diesel every 12 hours. It isn’t gold nuggets here, it is a fine dust similar to talcum powder. It was very interesting.

After my tour which took 3 hours I headed to the houses to paint the soffits. Graham suggested I paint them now while they are not up. I may have a touch up or two but it is much easier to do it now. Laura, Alistair and the kids dropped in for a visit. They had a tour at the mine too.

Today’s weather is rather crap. I made the most of it by staying in my pjs and making a net curtains for the truck out of material I had left over from the antique shop. I need to do a little editing and I may add onto it. But I am rather happy with the outcome.

I go into town to do a few errands and realise it is a public holiday. Well that shortened my tasks dramatically. I go home to get a few jobs done around Herbert. Catch up on washing and cleaning. Not a very exciting day I am afraid.

A beautiful day. Rowan took me up a well known canyoning spot. We went up as far as we could easily get. The water was absolutely freezing. I was being a wimp but I pushed through because it is incredibly beautiful.

The weather started to pack it in the closer we got to Jackson Bay. By the time we got to the Craypot for lunch it was light rain but the one that soaks you through in a matter of minutes. A nice lunch and a hot drink to warm up we went back to the Arawhata River to camp up. the weather cleared about 6pm. I spent the afternoon in the camper reading and Rowan went down to the river in the rain to look at rocks. You can get Pounamu in the rivers here but you can only take from the beaches not the river.

What a stunning day! I want to go to the beach to look for rocks and driftwood. Down at Neil’s Beach with my head down searching, my eyes noticed something black in the water. I stop to see what it is thinking a shag. Turns out it is Hector Dolphins. Well off come my clothes and I jump in.

A large wave comes at me and I dive under without thinking about my glasses. After being battered and standing back up, I realise I can’t see anymore. Well there go a few dollars. Hashtag well worth it!

Rowan jumps in too and they come up so close on nudges into him. A few hours in and out of the water, they follow us right down the beach and back again. We decide we will come back at low tide to see if the ocean gives back my glasses. Luckily I am not so blind I can’t see a dolphin.

Amazingly on our way back getting close to where I jumped in Rowan says keep an eye out for my specs and not 10 steps later he found them. They are a bit battered from the sand and rocks. It is great being able to see again! I wasn’t really worried as I do have two others in the camper I could have used.

We came across some guys on the beach and told them to get in. Rowan took lots of photos for them and got their number to share them. His dog Rimu is a bit scared of the waves but just waited while he had a swim.

After our epic swim we walked out to Ocean Beach. A very easy walk. I am glad we did it but it wasn’t anything spectacular. Unfortunately on the way back there was a couple on the track with a dog on the lead. There are literally huge signs as you enter the track no dogs as there are penguins nesting here. I told them to go back. They argued that they wouldn’t go to the beach and I said the penguins come into the forest too. So go back. I think they slowly did. I don’t know why people can’t just abide the rules. I told the DOC worker and he said there isn’t anything they can do, but thanked us for telling them to leave.

A walk out on the pier showed us a lot of small fish which means the big fish are not around at the moment.

Up river for the night opposite Lake Ellery. We stayed right on the riverbank as we knew what the weather was doing. Out here there is no signal! What bliss. A swim in the river washed off all the sand and salt from this mornings swim. We had a fantastic day.

I left Rowan on the river and walked up to Lake Ellery, following the Ellery Creek. The track was a great mix of what NZ bush walking can be. A little bit of mud, some wooden bridges, a few stairs and a few rocky steep bits. All doable in a pair of crocs. I really enjoyed the walk. The lake is quite sizeable. May need to come back with the raft one day.

In the afternoon we went out to get some reception to check our messages. Bette, Rowan’s grandma has osteoporosis and is in a lot of pain. But she is on the mend. We also wanted to check the weather.

Jarmie day! That’s right we spent the whole day in the camper going nowhere! It was great. I finally finished my trilogy of His Dark Materials. I have been reading off and on, with other books in between. I can’t say I loved them but I did enjoy the story.

Saturday it is time to start heading home. We decided to break up the drive rather than do it all in one day. It also means we get back at a reasonable time. We met with an expanding container home company in Queenstown. We have looked at these before but found them not being able to get compliance. This company is working closely with a client to get them legally on some land down Gore way. It will be interesting to see if they can make it happen. It will fulfil a big gap in the market.

Last night we stayed on Lake Dunstan but not in our usual spot. Heading off home today and plan an early lunch at the Waipiata Pub. Well Camele had other plans, the radiator is stuffed. Normally very good at keeping her temperature she began to overheat. Rowan noticed it warmer than usual. We stopped, let the engine cool down and put more water in. From there we were about 20min from the pub. We happily got her there and found a lot of admirers outside the pub. A group of cyclists who just thought she was fantastically retro! Well after lunch we put about 250ml into the radiator. So not too bad. Then we timed 15min stopped and checked. Then did 40min stopped and checked. By then we had made it to Palmerston which is only 30min from Herbert. We are definitely making it home.

A bit later than we wanted. Let’s worry about fixing the radiator tomorrow.

It is like everyone knew I was going away for the week and decided to call or email. It took all Monday to catch up on paperwork and call everyone back. Can I go back on holiday now please?

A local lady did our cushions for us with some wool blankets we got from the local tip shop. $25 a cushion what a bargain. The material was falling apart when we got the camper but we hoped to not have to do anything. Well a year of constant use degraded them into rags. Now they are snazzy!

A little catch up to do! Sorry I have had some technical issues with the blog so I haven’t been able to load it properly.

I got 102 native plants in by our pond/stream. I have more to plant but need to wait for more digger work first. They are all flaxes and and grasses with a few giant rush too. Hoping they do the trick. I am thinking of getting some natives for the water to keep it oxygenated and keep any algae at bay!

Rowan and I went down to Palmerston to organise a few things and ended up having a nice meal in Moeraki. Which was a late lunch/breakfast! We decided a night on the coast was in order and there was a bit of squall of weather. I have never been battered so much in the camper. We were wondering if it was going to push us off the cliff. It didn’t last long but it sure hit hard.

A bit more work on the Bedford done. I love my scallops, it was worth the work.

Cladding going on the houses. They just go up to the base of the windows. The windows have been ordered in Windsor Grey same colour as the roof iron.

The local timber mill has decided to close as they can’t keep up with the large timber mills. They have been going for 40 years and is a full family outfit. The owner actually went out to get all his workers new jobs before telling them it has to close. You wouldn’t get that sort of treatment in a big company.

We got a few packs of timber they were getting rid of for firewood. It is untreated Oregon that we will use for fencing rails and such. Unfortunately we weren’t in the market to buy anything else. But it looks like they got rid of most of it at the normal prices which is awesome! We did 3 separate loads. Two to site and one back to Herbert.

I have gotten our specification list for the houses to 80% done. Rowan and I are going on a break to the West Coast. There are no builders on site next week so why not!

A small amount of errands to do on our way out of town, with a shop for food as we have plans to be a bit bush. We aimed for 10am but got away at 11am. There is a restaurant in Twizel that has been on our list to try for a long time. I also want some Salmon and real wasabi.

Turns out the restaurant doesn’t open until 2pm, Google has the wrong hours. Oh well we are not hanging around. A quick stop in Wānaka takes us to a few op shops and a garage sale. Going through all this area we cycled brings back lots of memories. Especially around Lake Hāwera, man that was an exhausting day. We ended up camping exactly where we did last time, by the Makarora River before Haast Pass.

An epic sunrise to start my day. Rowan opened an eye but I left him sleeping. I opened my cards and a lovely hand made gift from my dad. Rowan made me pancakes with lemon and sugar.

Rowan and I both got a great Thai massage and pedicures. Then went out for lunch at the Whitestone Diner, which we have been wanting to go check out since it opened last year. I did get to the kitchen team at mitre10 while Rowan had his massage, I couldn’t not do a little work.

Back at Herbert we took Camele up to Mt Misery and Rowan cooked my nachos for dinner. All in all it was a great day.

Back to reality, we need to get this paperwork done! I have also been oiling the deck of the Bedford once every 24 hours. I think it will take 4 good coats of oil.

Roof is on in Palmy! Wahoo! The colour is Windsor Grey. I didn’t want black.

I got to the job of the old railway fire. I removed the rust and oiled it. Finally got the last coat of oil on the floor. The front wall has now been stained so it is clean and usable as out headboard. I need to paint the roof and the luton too.

In other good news. We were supposed to have mediation with Jetstar this week and we instead got a very timely payout. Well worth the fuss! It shows that it is worth fighting them for a canceled flight.

Chris arrives with a moments notice. We are trying to scarify the land. It is not that easy as it is still quite mushy. But he gets as much done as possible. Yay for having our bridge in place now.

Rowan and I worked hard to get the cladding done this weekend. It was hot work! We had an early start on Sunday. Jim helped us by getting rid of some green waste and we helped him by bringing a mirror from the farm to his property in Ngapara. It had the added benefit of returning Nanas stolen chair back to Riverstone Kitchen. They tell me it happens all the time haha.

We work late into the day and finally finish about 8pm. The rain is coming, we really wanted the main cladding to be completed. Doesn’t she look cute?

On Monday we headed in to do some paperwork then took the rest of the wet day off. Feeling quite tired and needing a break!

Tuesday morning time to say goodbye to my Nan & Ma. It has been awesome spending time with them and showing them around the area.

When we got back to Herbert we had a large debrief. Mum got us thinking about our second stage and if that is really the direction we want to head in. There are lots of decisions for us to make about our houses with its specifications. We will need to focus on getting that done soon.

There has been some progress made with the Bedford. I have got the stain done on the replaced floorboards.

Rowan has attached the last windows. I painted them green. You won’t see them a lot with the iron but thought it was easier to paint them now.

It took a good 7 hours of sanding for these floors. I even burnt a sander out and had to replace it. The floor hasn’t been oiled most likely since the 60s. It is very dry and splinters easily. It is going to take a lot of oil. It soaked up the linseed oil like a sponge.

No one informed us or the builders that the roof came to site on Tuesday. So we have had no builders all week! On Sunday we went to check out where they left it (not where the builders wanted it). However we have it now and the roof people should have called the builders or mitre10 to let us know.

While we were here we did the crop swap.

It’s Monday, we have procrastinated for as long as we could. Let’s start making some decisions about our houses! I have locked in the lighting plan. Now to get the bathrooms and kitchens done!

Kitchen light that will be seen in the picture window. Will also had LED strip lights under cabinetry.

Another sneak at more lights!

Tuesday, progress on the houses. All cost and wrapped up. Our trailer arrived a day late from Christchurch. We will get it unloaded as soon as we can.

Wednesday, we got some work done on the Bedford in the morning and spent the afternoon in Palmerston unloading that trailer! I was a bit useless with the shoulder. We managed to get it all in with ease.

Thursday, a really nice sunrise in town but by the time we got to the water we were just that little bit too late. After sorting paperwork in town, Rowan and I worked on the Bedford. This is the back deck in progress. It will be screwed with stainless steel screws from below which will give it a very clean finish.

Friday, Tony has come to help us. We have the wonderful Tony back to help us with the truck. Rowan and I need help with these Leadlight doors. We get the main big window in and Rowan puts in a leadlight window on his own. But the next window he gets in okay, but breaks it when he attempts to open it. It was rather stuck and he is lucky he didn’t cut his hand up too bad!

I got a chance to sand the bench chair and now I just need to oil it.

Saturday, we have some visitors from the north! My Mum (Jane) and Nana (Colleen). Last year they wanted to visit but didn’t quite get here so they came down and had a we road trip. Arriving in Christchurch and flying out of Dunedin. We stayed in an airbnb in Ōamaru town the first night and went out to Cucina for dinner. It has been a place we have wanted to visit for a long time and this is a great excuse to go out and experience the wonderful food. I requested somewhere quiet for Nana as I know restaurants can get rather noisy and we got put into this prep room which was perfect for us. It was very easy to hear each other and we had a great night.

Sunday, with some time to kill between leaving this airbnb and staying at another in Moeraki we went out for a lovely lunch at Riverstone Kitchen. We looked around the gardens and in the gift shops before sitting down to eat. There was a tour of the castle but no one was interested in seeing inside it. It was a lovely lunch, the food was perfect. Really large meals here and no way to fit in any dessert.

In a little rush to be in Dunedin for dinner with one of Mums friends we dropped our bags and Rowan in Moeraki and raced down to Dunedin for dinner. We made it with plenty of time to spare. Turned out she was running late so we didn’t need to rush. Mum and I were really full from lunch so we just had some bread and dips. Nana had the seafood chowder. Good thing about an early dinner is we were early back. I got to see the sunset in Moeraki which was stunning.

When we left Mum grabbed Nanas cardigan off the back of the chair and unknowingly took the canvas off the chair with her. They hung the jumpers up while going to the loo and still didn’t realise. It wasn’t until we got to Dunedin and I handed Nan her cardigan that I realised. So I told her she stole it and we needed a picture of shame. I will return it and apologise.

Monday, today is a chill day. Rowan cooked up some breakfast. Then we went out to see Herbert and show them our two houses in Palmerston. We made sure we were back for a nap and we just relaxed the afternoon away. Staying local for dinner at the Moeraki Pub. The food was fantastic and we had a nice view over the bay. There was even a boat called Kiwa (my cousins daughter’s name). A lovely meal to end our trip.

Had a funny moment when I went to refill the coffee container and ended up making myself a very strong coffee!

Each day as this week goes on my shoulder feels better. I have also bruised in my ribs. No actual bruising to show for but quite sensitive. I just take it easy this week.

We avoid Palmerston all week, I am sure the builders will have it under control. I have a lot of decisions to make about kitchens, fittings and fixtures so we focus of the Bedford truck and getting organised. As you can see it is a Project with a capital.

Rowan sisters up the rotten beams and we replace the wooden floor. We are aiming to use as much of the materials we already have and spend minimal amount of money on polishing up this turd.

I plant out the island but I can’t plant the rest until the bobcat comes. Since that is a while away I have 200 natives to keep alive until then. All were on clearance and all were root bound. So here is me dividing a Harakeke (flax) from one pot into 6.

Also here are my awesome bruises!

Physiotherapist appointment went really well. After we headed to Timaru again. This time it is for a washing machine. Rowan and I are over using the laundromat and asking friends to do a load of washing. Please see last pic of Rowan loaded up with a washing machine and a dehumidifier. He had to also take the backpack most of the way because it was killing my shoulder!

While there I popped into Bunnings to talk more about the kitchen and bathrooms.

It has been in the works for months, we have attempted several times to go to a crop swap in Palmerston. Well here we are, what a great experience and a great way to keep in touch with the community. I got rid of a few items and got several back. A delicious homemade tomato sauce. Lots of fresh ingredients and making new friends. Joan (who we have known for years) came to take a look at our houses and is really interested in one. She wants to move into a more modern home and absolutely loves the layout. We have been meaning to show her for weeks but we haven’t been around. Also a new face Viv, who is looking to downsize and build herself so want some advice. Look at the awesome ceiling height. I am in love!

Beautiful sunrise on our early ride for breakfast. Jim was up for some breakfast with us before we did some work. We helped move a bus he is taking up to his other place and in exchange we got our fire pile pulverised by his mower and he did the lawns too. We ended up helping with a fence for him, talk about scratch each other’s backs!

Paperwork, so much paperwork. But look at these beauties. Porcini mushrooms! A few hundred dollars worth. Rowan and I are so excited to eat these. Our awesome neighbours Kathy and Andy gave us some amazing venison he hunted. I gave a koha of 2 cabbage trees and some cherry mint kombucha. The trees are for their new place which Andy was stoked about as he loves them. We have also had some great lamb from Leona’s dad who butchers a few sheep every year for his kids. Talk about spoilt! We ended up having one of the mushrooms with the venison! Delicious.

The bottle jack finally arrived and now our truck is level.

Today tomorrow Timaru, that’s where I met you! Off to Timaru to pick up an old commercial self propelled lawn mower. Annoyingly we didn’t see it listed on our way south. Oh well good excuse to have a day out. We ended up having a nice lunch and while we had an enjoyable day scaffolding was going up.

The lawns are out of control. We have called in the big guns, Andrew has come with his big tractor to mow it all down. Much better! Still have some wood piles to get rid of.

A day in Herbert, I transferred the olives and some other plants. Looking better each day.

The letterbox is rather uninspiring, I really wanted a crafty creative task. A cheap and easy fix with some acrylic paint pens and some clear automotive paint.

Let me start with I am fine, I promise!

Oh dear Sunday. We went for a hoon with Laura and I was coming along a left bend and was going a little faster than I normally would. I hit a bump and thought I lost traction. Before I know it I had straightened my bike and landed in the ditch on the other side of the road. It all happened so fast I am not sure exactly what did happen. I did break so by the time I came off I was going fairly slow. My motorbike is fine and more importantly I am.

Laura was in front and Rowan was behind me. I was winded for a good minute and that was the hardest part. Rowan came and checked he could move me before lifting me up so I could breathe again. I thought I had really only hurt my left thumb, with an instant bruise. I ended up on the side of the road with an upper bank rather than down into a field. Someone stopped to check on us and I assured them I was okay. Once getting us to a safer spot on the road and rowan checking me over than my bike. By this time Laura had realised we weren’t behind her and came back. As she turned her bike around she dropped it, Rowan ran over to help. Laura stayed with me while Rowan took my bike for a quick ride to make sure it was safe to get back on. We were about 20min away from Ōamaru and I got back on the horse and followed Laura to her house.

It wasn’t until I was at Laura’s and my adrenaline had chilled out that I realised my shoulder was a bit sore too. Once I was back at Herbert and I could relax that is when I realised I had hurt my neck and shoulder. I wouldn’t say it was worse than a good fall down the stairs but it has been a long time since I have really gotten this hurt.

I woke up on Monday and felt a good amount of pain. Not enough to see a doctor but I took a couple of ibuprofen and called the physio. Appointment on Friday. I am sure it will get better on its own but if I can do some exercises and stretches to help. Also it is then recorded with ACC just in case I get any grief in the future.

I held off writing this blog, well because I feel a bit silly coming off my bike but also I didn’t want a flood of worry from everyone. So sorry for the delay of blogs but I wanted to make sure you all know 12 days later I am well.

And just like that we have a second house! Rowan and I are not much help at this stage of the build apart from helping pick items up or hold a tape measure.

We have been told last minute we need scaffolding, so now we are scrambling to get that sorted. This may cause a few weeks delay.

Leona asked us to take drone pics of her new listing up Mt Misery Road. Isn’t it awesome? Right on the river, lots of potential. It was a school outdoor education centre and for the last 8 years it has been rented to a family of 10. There is the main house, a little two bedroom cottage behind it, another two room bunk room, storage sheds, plus girls and boys ablutions. That is just the upper part of the property. Lower down are another two large rooms and bathrooms. Oh the endless possibilities. You would want to live there and run it like a business. Weddings? Eco farm? A few acres and all those buildings a mere $570k price. If Rowan and I were settling down we would buy it in a heartbeat.

Thursday is here, we had booked Chris is for Friday but we did a bit of swapping around. I have been wanting to get this done for a long time. Let’s make a proper water course. It gives us a lot more usable land and I get to plant it out with some natives and hopefully have some wildlife. The job was just finished when the rain hit. Chris will come back in a few weeks and smooth it out more when it has dried up a bit. He will also put the bridge into place.

Woke up to a nice little wetlands. It rained and rained, it didn’t take long at all to fill up.

Today we are heading to Christchurch to get our stuff out of storage. National storage are well I am not sure what the correct term would be. Price gouging? Predatory pricing? Basically they advertise a good rate, wait for all your stuff to be in there and increase the price over the years while still having units available at the lower price. It went from $190 per month to $320. We decided it was just getting out of hand and it’s time to get it all out. Luckily we didn’t have much left in there as we have been slowly removing our stuff.

I have so many things on my mind I thought I was under control but we had to go back to Herbert to get the keys to unlock the container and I forgot that we were to meet up with Tama. We eventually got on the road properly and was quite a bit later than we had aimed for. We got into Christchurch in the evening.

Lovely Rick and Liz have taken us in again and will even store some of our things if we can’t fit it all in this one load.

It takes us all day to get our stuff out. We started with all the boxes and decided it was easier to take 90% of it to Brooklands and sort it there. The last load was a haberdashery and some museum specimen cabinets. Rowan went off to cook dinner while I carried on with packing. I got most of it done before dinner. We left Rowan to do the last bits as Liz and I went to see a play at the botanic gardens. It was really funny and very well done.

Sunday, time to head back. There are a few shops I want to visit before heading back. I have to think about lighting and fixtures for the houses.

Rowan noticed the towbar wasn’t looking right. I tried to find a mechanic but none are open. we called AA at Trade Depot and it took 3 hours to sort us out. The mechanic came and told us not to tow the trailer and that he will get a tow truck to come get it. Looks like we are missing a bolt and there is a crack. I am not sure if the lady on the phone was just unrealistic but Rowan refuses to pay just over $2k to town the trailer back. Finally she thinks of doing a long haul load. We agree and a truck comes to get the trailer. There is nothing wrong with the trailer which makes it easy for the tow guy.

Not much happening in sunny Palmerston. The scaffolders should be here tomorrow.

Back into Waitaki. Rowan picked up his knife that came before Christmas. Peter Lorimer made a new handle for it. The knife is an old WW1 trench knife. Peter exceeded our expectations by using whale bone over wood.

On Wednesday we get to site so the frames and trusses can be put on site. Building paper, extra wood and the likes also ready to go. It took a few hours to sort it all.

The rest of the week was busy. Organising the trailer load from Nelson, getting the gardens a bit more reasonable and loads of paperwork. I am enjoying having baths again. I really missed them while we were away.

The day has arrived. Let’s get the first one up. It goes off without a hitch, just like reading Lego instructions it all fits together perfectly. Wahoo for house number one.

Now the walls are up it feels a lot bigger. I was worried it was going to be ridiculously small.