We arrived in Auckland, and had to wait until the following evening for a flight down to Napier, so spent the time relaxing around our hotel, rather than attempt to see anything of the city. We landed up for lunch in an 'Irish' bar around the corner, and received plenty of advice about what to see and do from the people around us.
Mike and Jacqui were both at Napier airport to meet us, and we were soon on our way to enjoy a BBQ at the homestead style house that Jacqui is renting on the road out from Hastings to Waimarama beach, about 30km from Hastings where they work at the hospital. Afterwards, Mike and Lisa took us back to their rented 'cottage' on the Maraetotara Road near where they are building a house. The cottage is vast, but very cold even in what passes for summer. We have apparently been unlucky with the weather so far! The site is in a beautiful valley and about 35km out of Hastings, where Lisa works. Havelock North, the 'village' is just a bit closer, and one of Mike's offices is there. The other is a way south, in Palmerston North.
We were planning to try to buy an old caravan to tour with, so one of our first priorities was to get mobile. We went into Hastings, and managed to track down a hire car for a few days. We also looked at a few cars. In the end we decided to go for the first one we saw, very much reduced from its original asking price, but a very nice Honda Accord 3 litre V6 with a tow bar on it. Finding a caravan at a sensible price and in reasonable condition seems practically impossible, and currently we think we may camp and go for YHA or Backpacker hostels.
Mike was concerned to get to a stage where the house was wrapped and battened up, ready for cladding, in time to get it inspected before Christmas, as he had three weeks off in which to make some good progress. There was a lot still to be done, so we helped with the work necessary to get ready for the inspection. Fortunately the inspection passed off happily, so we were then all set for cladding. With only occasional time off, we have now worked for almost 5 weeks on the house! John has largely been builder's mate, holding cutting and lifting as required, while Mo has stained both sides the bulk of 1.4 kilometres of weatherboard!
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| The house site seen from the track up to the middle level | Mo tackles some of the 1400 metres of weatherboard |
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| Mike checking all is level | Fixing one of the windows |
Jacqui and Rowan have bought some land north of Hastings, and we went out one afternoon to see it. We stopped by afterwards to look at the house that they plan to put on it: this has been sawn in half and propped up on wooden piles, pending building permission. We also spent a day with Oscar who was getting over an infection and not yet allowed back by 'Rascals' (his 'Kindy'). We took him to the Aquarium at Napier which he loves. We've been back to the land to walk the boundaries with the portable GPS that came free with last year's antifouling, to help draw up the house site more accurately for the application to the council.
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| Oscar and Fergus taking refreshment | ||
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| ..after checking out the section... | ..wondering whether it will ever go back together?.. |
Christmas morning was spent working on the house! In the afternoon Jacqui and Rowan brought the boys over, and we went up the Moreatatora road to the Mohi bush reserve for a walk. The reserve skirts the golf course at Waimara with great views to the sea. The reserve contains many native species that escaped the early settlers' burning. Afterwards we went to Jacqui and Rowans' for a BBQ.
On Boxing Day the weather was so bad, that we gave up on the building front, and instead went for a drive. First we went out to Ocean Beach, where the very brave surfers and parasurfers were enjoying the windy conditions, and then we drove south along the next valley inland from Maeretotara, to Elsthorpe, and returning along the main road to Hastings. We stopped by a couple of places where 'sections' were for sale out of curiosity: one area was particularly attractive overlooking the Tukituki River.
We have been invited along with Mike and Lisa to two BBQs at neighbouring houses, where we have been lucky to meet friends and family of real Kiwis, many of them of course farming nearby. We are also looking forward to a town BBQ with our friends Brian and Deborah from s/y Chinook, who are visiting Brian's brother in Napier. We have found everyone to be friendly and refreshingly cheerful.
I write this savouring time off from the building project. We are still researching caravans, or will possibly buy some camping gear, so that we can now go exploring this lovely country.