20th of August 2018; 'Donde van'

Enjoy a beautiful song by Diego Torres while you're reading this post. The title of the song is 'Donde van', which means 'Where are they going'.

Well, that'll be South America. Just 2 more weeks and we'll wake up in Santiago de Chile. Scary and exciting. The only plan we have so far is to fly to Santiago, buy a car and head south. Haven't booked any other accommodation than the one in Santiago. That's so 'not me'. I usually travel with an Excel sheets, having booked all the accommodation well in advance, knowing exactly what the distances are between them and where the points of interest are around them. And now, we both have a South America travel guide, the South America on a Shoestring and the Footprint of South America, but we only read a few pages on Santiago. Not in any hurry to read the rest, we'll just see what happens.

We'll probably head for Patagonia and Antarctica. Drive north again through Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and then back into Chile. There is some stuff on the bed in the spare room, but even packing hasn't started yet. The last 2 weeks before the trip are filled with meeting friends and neighbours to say goodbye. Dick was even so friendly to bring fresh fish because I missed a fishing trip. Some sneezing patients had given me a bug in my last week in Otaki.

Last weekend we went to Greytown in the Wairarapa to meet some friends we met in the first weeks here in NZ. We had just plundered the cheese shop in Featherston when a man in a camper van started honking at us. A Dutch friend from the Coromandel had seen us walking with our arms full of merchandise and was in for a 'kopje koffie'.

Those friends from Wellington brought us a birthday cake, a bit early, but who cares when it looks like this. Everybody had brought some food, but forgot to bring the rest of the neighbourhood. Enough food to feed the whole village. And then this thing to top it of.

Even my lovely wife had a bit too much prompting her to state she would never do this again in the middle of the night. Till the next time of course.

In the morning we dragged ourselves into the cars and visited the Waiohine gorge. More for a visit and to kind of make ourselves feel less guilty, than to walk a distance anyone could boast about.

After concluding the tracks on the other side of the bridge were pretty wet (at least for us) we reached consensus and headed back to the cottage to finish of the beautiful cake.

The dinner at Terohana estate winery in Martinborough was perfect again. Not sure what the owner told his staff about us, but they were clearly nervous and kept throwing things over. Have to say that Nienke visits the restaurant more often with her notorious chatty bunch of friends. A great weekend.

Finally replaced our old Ikea tulip lamp with a new one. The UV radiation in NZ had made the leaves so brittle they started crumbling down when you walked past it to quickly. Found a replacement on the Dutch TradeMe and Nienke twin sister as kind enough to arrange transport. I saved one more or less intact leaf in order to use it as a template for when I attempt to repair the big lamp when we come back from South America.

About halfway on the horizon you can see the snowy tops of Mount Ruapehu. A nice surprise when we took a long stroll over Te Horo's beaches. If you can't see it click on the picture to enlarge it.

Well, we'll just walk a lot when we're in Santiago. With all those dinners (here with Louis and Sue) it's an endless battle. We thought we'd just have the leftovers the next day, but had forgotten we were invited for another dinner. Luckily there are still some jobs to do. They're all jobs you plan to do one time, but usually only do just before you sell your house. Paintwork that needs patching up, lamps that have always been broken mysteriously, doors that do not close properly, etc. And once you've done them the house is so much better. Ergo, just plan a day like that!

One of the those jobs was our stove. A pretty good brand (Smeg), so you'd expect it to function normally for a decade. Well, one of the ignitors decided to go on strike. We, as 'local government', just ignored the bloody thing and just used a lighter. By the way, pretty useless things, they last for about 3 weeks. Anyway, we wanted to make sure everything worked well for our house sitters. So I called the Smeg service station; "We don't do that ourselves, we an electrician in Wellington". So I called 'the electrician' in Wellington; "Nah, that involves gas mate, we don't do that. You'd have to call a plumber". So I called a plumber (several actually); "Nah mate, that involves electricity, that's work for a sparky (NZ nickname for electricians).

This was leading nowhere, so I called a supplier; Yes, you can order that part, and no, I won't tell you how to replace it. Not allowed to by law".

OK, I'll wait for a rainy boring day and do it myself with the help of my friends from Youtube. Turns out that no one has done this yet. They probably have very eager service stations, plumbers and electricians who just jump to a fun job like this. And so today was horrible. Water came bucketing down. So I grabbed some tools, and some more, and even more. I think I removed about a 100 screws. The guy tearing down the bathroom (leaking there as well) asked Nienke carefully if I'd already started swearing. There was simply no easy way to do this. RTFM? Read The F***ing Manual? There was no manual! These machines are not made to be repaired or dismantled. No wonder that stupid ignitor costs $65, it probably had to come all the way from Italy. About 5 breaks and a lunch further I finally managed to replace the faulty ignitor. And surprise, surprise, I was 1 screw short! Not the expected pile of 'no idea where they belong'. Reconnected the gas, threw a liter of dishwasher liquid on it and stared at it for bubbles. None came. Now the ultimate test, switched the power back on and BINGO, it worked. I guess I saved ourselves a $200 travel costs (Tradesmen never have the part they need with them so they have to drive twice), $250 in man hours and $100 on materials (those spare parts tradesmen buy are apparently plated with gold). My reward? A high five from my wife and a 'good on ya' from the builder. I'll take it.

6th of August 2018: rural winter in NZ

One of the perks of not working is of course more time to sleep and also I am happy to say improved sleep. That leads to slightly later morning feeding times for the animals and more time to enjoy that moment of the day as it can now include a few cuddles. When I was working it was a bit of a 'feed run' really when Hans was not home.

As soon as I open the blinds in the kitchen window, somehow the chooks in the veggie garden (some 25 m away from that window) notice this and start 'talking' about when breakfast will be served. As soon as you then open the door of the garage, the other animals hear that food is underway and start making noise. Mostly of course you'll hear Thelma and Louise, our kunekune pigs. Our youngest babies on the property, the hereford boy and girl are nosy and waiting for hay now the grass is not really growing.

As things go in NZ, when there is a truck coming down from Hamilton with water tanks that's when you will get your water tank delivered - not when you would like it delivered (in August). So the truck turned up a day after Hans had left for Kaikoura in the evening - I was flagging it down with a flash light on the side of the road. With a big thump that scared the nosy cattle it ended up in the berm next to our paddock gate. In the morning the neighbour's cattle were inspecting this 'big green thing' that had turned up overnight.

I've been to Wellington every three weeks more or less since I had my eye laser treatment in May. My left eye was still very dry and didn't really catch up with the program of working in tandem with my right eye. So various methods, drops and exercises have been trialled and I'm happy to say that it feels like it's almost there so I will have trouble free travels - and no need for reading glasses, which is soooo good!
On one of my trips I decided to go check out the travelling Anne Frank exhibition and newly opened exhibition space in Te Papa, Toi Art.

I love this kind of art, funky, out of the box kind of stuff. Whimsical with a critical edge is how they described the art of Michael Parekowhai.
One idea of this bit of the exhibition was to explore the space so the elephant was put on poles and if you walk over the air bridge on the level above, you are eye to eye with it.

One of NZ most famous jewelry makers was also part of this current exhibition, Karen Walker. Over the years she has, next to her making beautiful jewelry in silver, gold and other metal, also explored the weird and the fun. Bad taste maybe for some this duckling necklace but I liked it.

This was my favourite piece of the current exhibition, a rainbow of all colourful threads where the artist has hung glass bowls that are filled with items in that same colour. The bowls are filled with food (lots of colourful spices), shells, stones and any items in that same colour. I think it's there permanently, so if you're in Wellington it's definitely worth checking this out.

A week later, after I had time to level the tank site - the 5 ton digger arrived to put it in it's place.
From the first minute I have to say I was impressed by the skill of the digger driver.

As the tank was pretty close to the power lines they couldn't lift it on the berm, so he very gently nudged it on it's side and then it more or less rolled through the first gate. With a diameter of 3m that was a smooth job.
Here you see the bottom of the tank, looks wrinkled but I was assured that's all normal.

After putting on the straps and shortening them so that the digger could lift the tank as high as possible, the drive towards the first set of gates started.

This is the third gate, all was going very smooth - with centimetres to spare it was all working out.

Going forward up a bit of steep hill made the large tank crash into the Marcrocarpa branches - so the driver turned the 'upper part' (stuurhut?) 360 degrees and drove up backwards and then from the low bit it had to come up again as the photo shows.

Through the last gate and past the veggie garden where I had removed the two corner fencing poles, a few branches and dug out a fruit tree to clear the way.

And there it was, after an hour or so, in place where it needed to be. Time to make a coffee and discuss other interesting digger jobs!

Another perk of having lots of time is being able to go for a bike ride whenever you feel like it, in this case end afternoon so that on the beach bit of my 'loop' I could catch the sunset. And wow, it was a pretty one that night.

Last week I joined one of Birgit's felting workshops, which are part of a community project that she received a grant for from Horowhenua District Council, pretty cool! So far she had done a number of workshops with all ages, at schools, at libraries etc. and around 120 felt circles have been created.
Here on the first photo you how the wool gets 'stacked', before it's wetted and rolled, so that the fibres start blending.

After the rolling (with water and soap), you 'kneed' and 'slap' and massage the wool to make it grip tighter and make it shrink. This kind of wool shrinks about 40%. The photo shows the circles we made with the group that was there. The largest (further away in the picture) is mine.
Birgit is now going to use all the circles to make an art installation that will be permanently exhibited at Te Takara, which is the Levin library and art space. She needs to work out the shape and form, so we took some photos of the space and discussed how she could install it. She'll need to send me a picture of the final result, as the opening is September some time. All good fun this art making - I'll definitely try the felting again in the future.

Hans his morning pic from the practice in Kaikoura, where he spent another 3 weeks and his colleagues now seriously doubt that he does have a wife.........He has been there now so often and I've never come to Kaikoura to visit him. I have gone down actually but we met in Christchurch and didn't go back to Kaikoura. It's a good running joke to keep going, the mystery wife saga.

Oh it's you again on your afternoon stroll is it...?
Hans finally had an afternoon to go for a walk on Monday, after he was on call from the minute he arrived for 4 nights in a row plus the weekend. And it was busy! It's often all or nothing when you've on call, so if it's busy it's non stop busy and that means very little sleep!

He complains he's getting too old to work nights - but hey spread out over months it's probably all right ;-)

Kaikoura rocks show the sea bed has lifted significantly after the earth quake and vastly changed the sea lions and crayfish habitat in that bay. The sea lions have returned in large numbers, so nature bounces back. Hans has gone for a sea kayak with a colleagues, very close to lots of seals - one of the perks of Kaikoura for sure.

This photo shows the mist rolling in on that afternoon stroll, ending that very quickly. Time to go back to the bach and light the fire again.

On the free weekend Hans hiked up mount Fyffe again for some nice fresh air and wonderful views.

Kaikoura has been a great place to work for Hans, he's really enjoyed the variation of the work over there and the great team he's worked with. Has been doing a lot of socialising which is just lovely. The team and patients are telling him to convince his 'imaginary' wife to move over there. But no, eventhough lovely over there, it's too small for my type of work and too far away from everything really.

Pretty sunsets on the East Coast too - but this could also have been the sunrise - I'll have to check with Hans!

Seals enjoying their 'dolce far niente' life style on the rocks.

Dawn I suspect..

Last weekend we had our yearly Sims Road drinks at our place. The last catch up was at my 50th party so quite a while ago. We also introduced the neighbours to their new 'stand in' neighbours for 9 months, which all worked out very well. Nice bunch of people and a nice get together.

Friday nights live music nights at the Social Club in Raumati - we have been regulars in the last years as it's a great combination; have a nice meal and then a live gig. It looks like the new owners are keeping that going. Another reason not to move to Kaikoura - Kapiti is vibrant compared to Kaikoura - even in winter.

And another winter sunset to end this blog, sunsets like this feel like a treat - even if you have one almost every day.

xxNienke