Happy New Year! I had a lovely holiday break which finished perfectly with a visit from family. Having 3 pairs of hands (and lots of knowledge!!) is so much easier than doing everything myself - I waste half the time trying to think how to do it, and the rest of the time trying to carry it out!
New Year's Day on the island was the wettest 24 hours for a long time with around 100mm rain. I had localised flooding around my property but it was minor compared to some other places; this is the top end of Hicks Road...
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| There's a road under there somewhere! |
A major slip on Horseshoe Bay Road took half the road with it and the bank will need stabilising first so fixing it will be a major exercise. You realise how isolated you are on this island when events like this call for heavy machinery, engineering expertise and a load of building material. It's probably one of the busier sections of road and although it's possible to keep it one lane in the short term it's going to be a pain if it's not fixed soonish.
A few days later we were having the hottest day on record! It was a stunningly sunny day and it was great to have experts on hand to chainsaw the two trees close to the garage. After the hard slog we walked to the Bay for very welcome ice blocks and ginger beer.
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| Good to get these taller trees away from the garage |
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| Halfmoon Bay on a scorching 33.1°C day |
We had a good time on Ulva Island, the only South Island open bird sanctuary, did some sightseeing and took the Real Journeys Village and Bays guided bus tour - three nights just wasn't long enough to get round everywhere but plans are afoot to tramp the Northwest Circuit here in 2015.
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| Bathing Beach |
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| A young fledgling toutouwai (robin) on Ulva Island |
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| A great display of flowering rata |
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| Close up of flowering rata |
Two new additions have appeared on my section; firstly a TipTop ice-cream cabinet that was in one of the clearings - it's now been carried out of the bush and I'll use it as a seed cabinet. Secondly, I've built a large compost heap so now have a mini-Mt Taranaki close to home!
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| Anyone for an ice-cream? |
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| Halfway through building a compost heap |
I needed to call on the expert this week when the waterpump didn't turn off despite all taps being off. Rex has fitted a new one way valve section to the intake side and (touch wood) everything is going sweetly again. I've learned a lot about water pumps in the process too. The builders turned up at the same time to replace the roof nails with the proper roofing screws so shouldn't have a repeat of the roof leak I had last year, luckily before the ceiling was painted.
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| My waterpump |
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| Jarrod's crew replacing the roofing nails with roofing screws |
Never a dull moment on the island; what a great place to live!
