December 12th; We need a pool.....

My father-in-law looked a bit disappointed visited us many years ago now. and saw the table tennis table he had given us, a present to him from his former colleagues. The poor table that was supposed to keep us fit (oh yes, we were going to play nearly every night)  was nearly collapsing under the weight of all the stuff we had stored on top of it. Absolutely unusable for it's original purpose. But since we put ourselves up again to host woofers, I decided it was a good time to restore the  'Heemskerk'-table to it's old glory.

Still busy doing the electric work in the garage as well. This is something typical for NZ. I ordered a powerpoint with USB-C sockets and a flushbox to match it. Same company, same brand, only the powerpoint is too deep and the flushbox open.  Happens so often here, they have part A but not B, or they do have them, but they do not fit together. Island troubles.

We have finally changed the name of our property officially. The pretentious 'The Pavillion' is gone. It is now called

'Ngā karoro rere' which means 'Soaring seagulls' in Māori. We thought it would be a fitting name for this place, even though our kids are not here to enjoy it.

And there it is. Restored in full glory. Even with a new net. No more excuses not to play. Have to say, until today we have not been tempted to park any stuff on there. And the woofers have recently used it quite a bit. Already taught my tennis team mate, who boasted that he played premier league in his youth, a lesson.

The garage is finished. I managed to backup the campervan into the garage without damaging anything this time. The new garage door will arrive next week and then it will all look perfect again.

We have had the final inspection by the council. When the inspector saw the plumbing on the in- and outside he said that that was not on the plans, in other words, it was unconsented. 'What good is having a fishing boat in the garage if you can't clean the fish?' I said. Good argument, let's forget it. I had also done the plumbing for the roof and covered it up as the electricians needed to drive over it.

Luckily we still had the pictures, as that needed to be inspected as well. I filled in the official forms myself and signed it as 'the certified drainlayer'. I hope no one notices. This is one of the soak-pits. Basically a hole of 80x80x80 cm, cladded with weed mat and filled with rocks so that when it rains really hard (we can only hope, can't we?) the excess water disappears in the ground instead of running over the road. Everybody happy, including the inspector.

Time for a short beach walk. We miss these dunes a bit. It was so nice to jump in the ocean after some hard work or just grab a beer and sit on the beach. Now, we have to drive/cycle to the beach.

No, these are not memories of good ol' times. We visited Cathy and James, the nice people who bought our old home. 'Stay for a bite'. OK, but only if I can make the fire.

Nienke making sure it doesn't get too high......

And before you know it everybody (well, except me) was dancing around the fire.

We really had to do something with the cobwebs on the south side of the house. Did you know the colour black attracts spiders? Neither did we. The new garage has already got quite a few new inhabitants. Anyway, this side of the house was covered in cobwebs, it looked ok for halloween, but after that it was really time for a clean. Build up the good old scaffolding and started cleaning. Meanwhile the woofers had started cleaning the rest of the house on the outside.

After the clean it was time for poison. Yep, not very kind or good for the climate, but when it comes to spiders, that's where Nienke draws the line. Up to me to climb the scaffolding with a tank full of poison on my back. The spiders literally jumped down and those who did not, we found lying on the concrete the next day. I even sprayed my car which is now cobweb free as well. Question now is, how long will it last. That poison is not cheap.

Because of the poison we could not have woofers as WOOF stands for 'Working On Organic Farms'. The poison we use is not exactly organic. So we had Work-a-way-ers. Basically the same concept, but they are more expandable....... Here are Tanja and Emily enjoying their free time doing some oamaru stone carving.

They enthusiastically attacked the weeds on the steep slopes, cutting it of at about 10-15 cm. After that, I followed with more poison to kill the weeds. Hopefully when the canopy of trees has grown, no more weeds will grow underneath anymore.

We taught the girls how to play backgammon and Mah Yong. They got completely addicted to the last game. Every night after dinner they begged us to play a few games. My grandparents would be proud to know we are still using their antique game.

All the space we suddenly have to store things. I may become a proper hoarder....... The scaffolding safely store with chains, so the won't damage the campervan during an earthquake. On December the 5th we had a 4.0 just a few km's from the beach.

I am a board member of our little sewerage plant. What an honour indeed. Because they did not want our development to have septic tanks and we could not be connected to the councils sewerage pipes, we (about 50 households) have our own sewerage treatment plant. Right next to all these cows is one of our sample bores. We need to get samples tested every three months to see if we do not contaminate the groundwater. What do you think they find? E. coli! Now where would that come from.... And then you have to reason with the public servants from the regional council. Truly a shit job.

A beautiful sight indeed, but also a bit  unfortunate. When they predict much needed rain for our area it either falls around Kapiti island or behind us in the Tararua's. The rainbow is a bonus, but we wouldn't mind getting completely soaked ourselves, at least, for a few hours or so.

I think this must be the jubileum game, nr. 100.

Our helpers have left for the south island. We found a some flowers and a nice card on the dinner table when we came home. They had really enjoyed themselves, especially the games and the food. Wow, they can eat. One day I made a big bowl of lasagna with the idea there would be more then enough for lunch the next day. They finished it completely.

When I read their profile I was kind of blind sighted by their love for gardening and did not notice the last sentence; 'we are vegetarians'. We have been eating vegetarian for 14 days. I have to admit, it is not the worst thing on earth, but the day they left I presented Nienke with the biggest steak I could find in the freezer.

We have become more active members of the Te Horo society lately. Not only for the emergency response, but also socially. These tennis courts could do with an upgrade. I'll look into that. They have just the nicest little clubhouse. Not in the picture unfortunately, but that must be restored. Talking about tennis, with Pukerua Bay we won the championship and will be playing in the second grade next year, with my Wednesday evening team we ended third pre-X-mas. Just that calve muscle........

Here we are for the Te Horo Christmas BBQ. Weird for us anyway, but Christmas carols, a proper Santa and a BBQ in the nicest weather..... Good to meet the locals.

We also visited the Kapiti food fair and had the nicest Ethiopian food and some empenada's. As it was mostly about food it was quite busy. Some live music as well.

The Caramello's were not complete, but they were still good to listen too. Their biggest fan was there as well. We decided to call it a day after the 'Fleetwood Mac experience' killed the mood. When they sang 'Don't stop' we thought exactly the opposite. Oh well.

We had to go to our new neighbours housewarming anyway. As we could not agree on who was going to be the sober driver we decided to walk.

Kindness always gets rewarded. Our neighbour spontaneously offered to clean up the area around our new garage and prepare for a small retaining wall. We had been so kind to his family when his father was terminally ill that he wanted to return a service. What a lovely neighbourhood.

All done. Just needs a bit of grass seed, a bit of gravel and some retaining wall wood. A job for next week.

This week I was in Tauranga for the radiation treatment for my left hand. Willem and Carla were so kind to offer a bedroom for a couple of nights in their lovely new home in Waihi. They live on a mountain and Willem owns a digger, so logically you start building a swimming pool. I jumped to the opportunity to help and learn.

I got inspiration!!!!! Nienke, what do you think?