Posted on

Tramping

So I decided to go for a walk in the woods during our mandatory 2 week time off over Christmas and new years. Did I mention the mandatory fun here? I went for a Tramp in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park. Which I later learned means that it is not a national park but is owned by the forest service for the purpose of timber harvesting and management. It was a great trip by all accounts, with great highs and lows. Learned a lot and met some new people.

Ended the first day at Daily’s Clearing Hut, 16 bunks and a nice porch and kitchen area, did I mention that the huts here have running water? All the huts collect rainwater and store it to use.

Daily’s Clearing Hut
Posted on

Settling In

Our new space is quite a bit smaller than Beach Road. The main living area is 6 by 6.7 meters or 40 square meters for the kitchen, living area, and bathroom. The bedroom is 3 by 3.8 meters or 11.4 square meters. Its tiny but pretty well laid out and now that we have downsized some more we fit into it. We had to make a bunch of trips to the second hand shops and donate some of the more valuable items like our mattress to the Lion’s club. It was hard letting go of the mattress because it was the most comfortable one I have ever slept on. Its difficult to find a mattress that is firm enough for Lara and soft enough for me, but this one was perfect. However, it was a queen and just too big for our tiny bedroom so it had to go.

I decided to make bookshelves to solve the problem of not having closets here. We have a ton of books and other things to go on shelves but nowhere to put them. So I went to Mitre 10 and bought some 12mm furniture plywood and hardboard for the backing and built 6 bookshelves. They are arranged in such a way to create a space for Lara’s closet as well. To make her closet space we hung 2 closet rods from the ceiling rafters, one over the other to double stack the hanging clothes and used hanging closet organizers we bought at Ikea in the states. So now she has  big walk in closet behind a row of bookshelves.

Car and Trailer loading up at Beach Road
Sometimes things fit perfectly

New garden at Thompsons Track
Walnut and Fig Trees
New additions to Thompsons Track
Gettin’ plywood for the book shelves
Posted on

New Diggs

We have been Looking for a cheaper rental place since we got here and finally found one. Its on Tompsons Track which is just south of town. Its in a garage that was converted to an apartment and its better than it sounds. The place is fully insulated and has electricity, internet, and water included in the rental price. Its not typical but one month’s electricity bill here at Beach road was $435! That was before we started heating primarily with the wood stove. We were using the electric floor heat a lot which uses a lot of KW hrs since the place was also uninsulated at the time.

We did finally get the whole attic insulated, I did the parts over the rooms we use first and left the unused rooms till last.  Putting fiberglass batts in an attic here is a chore. It’s like Dante’s version of Yoga. The attic is so low that you can just barely sit up straight in the center only. For the rest of it you are sliding around on your stomach across the 2×4 joists, and its so low at the edges that you have to wedge your body between the roof and ceiling and use a reachin’ stick to shove the batts out to the edge of the living space. It also is inhabited by cockroaches and spiders, and its hot work since you have to be bundled up head to toe to avoid the fiberglass. So a fun time was had by all, but its done now.

I also went on a guided bush walk with the Aongatete Forest Project group. It was led by Basil Graeme who is an environmental advocate and botanist who has been working in New Zealand forests for most of his life and he is in his 60’s or 70’s now. He pointed out the native vegetation and explained the history of the efforts to reduce the pest species so that the forest can grow back and the birds can return. Apparently it was so bad 15-20 years ago that you could sit in the forest for 5-10 minutes and not hear a single bird.

Evidence of the decline of certain areas of the Aongatete forest
Basil Points out an Interesting species on the Aongatete bush walk.

Got a Dewalt battery charger from TradeMe to charge up my drills.
Rainbow with reflection on the water. Sometimes we get double rainbows with a reflection so that makes it a quadruple!
Posted on

The Talisman Restaurant

We had dinner at the Talisman restaurant last Saturday. It was one of those places we had wanted to go to since we first looked into Katikati from Delaware. We walked in and there were maybe 3 tables with people at them, and a bunch of empty tables and the hostess looked right at us and said she would have to check if they had a table for us. I guess we passed the test because she came back a few minutes later and seated us at the table right by the front door. Must be where they stick the newbie’s because every time someone opened the door the wind blew right at us.

Despite all that, the service and food were fantastic. I had the Greek pizza, Lara had the broiled fish with veggies, and I had a  banana split for desert. The waitress was very accommodating to our dietary restrictions and super friendly. We had a great and relaxing time there.
Posted on

Weather in Katikati

Magic Double Rainbow
Sunrise over Katikati

So, it rains almost every day here. Even when there is no rain in the forecast, just a sprinkle or two, you get used to it. It helps the plants grow and on the upside we get rainbows almost every day too. Plus awesome sunsets.

Sunset on Katikati
Posted on

Tucker made it home today!

Tucker is Home!
Safe and sound. He’s lost a bunch of weight though, and the only vegetarian food we can find here is $100 for 12 cans! so we have to start making food for him ourselves and portioning it out.
Made our first successful long trip in the leaf with no problems. We are able to charge at the motel in town until our charger arrives, and there are free chargers in Tauranga and Auckland.
Our container has arrived in Tauranga but needs to be inspected, so we won’t get our stuff till next week some time. So still waiting on my tools and bike and our bed. We picked up a used mattress from the second hand shop in town that we are using but it is not as comfortable as ours.
Tuckered Tucker
Posted on

Goings On In Katikati

It’s been another busy week. Working on some prototype matrix bands at work. These are used to hold the glue in the proper shape while the crown is being placed. They are formed to the shape of each tooth. Getting to know my coworkers as well. They’re all very friendly, professional, talented folks. Helping me broaden my knowledge in this new field.
We are still working on putting insulation in the attic. It’s only cold at night here. Days are usually 16 Celsius, comfortable enough to not need a coat or hat. The insulation really helps to keep the place warm overnight so it’s not chilly when we get up. Lara has been doing a great job with the wood stove since she gets up at 3am, she gets the fire going for the day.
Oh, Nuts!

She went to several meetings this week and started the process of getting her partner visa, had to travel to Tauranga medical center for an exam and dropped off her bike at the bike shop to get new tires and a tune up. Luckily there’s pretty good bus service to the major towns from here. She went to the local sewing club and learned some cross stitching and picked up a bag of walnuts for $3 which was a great find as walnuts at the store here are $45 per kilogram. I spent the morning today by the fire shelling the walnuts. Lara also went to help the local boomerang bag program make reusable shopping bags to distribute free to local shops to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags.

We were able to get a Nissan Leaf this week also at a dealer in Auckland. They dropped it off Friday. We’re still working out the charger though. The one it comes with requires a 20 amp plug which we don’t have yet. We met a guy on our street Bruce through the Plugshare app that is helping us out by letting us borrow his charger and use his plug for a while till we get set up.
We’re pretty excited about Tucker coming home this Tuesday also. We’ll drive up to Auckland at noon to get him and bring him home. I think he’ll have a great time running around in our huge yard after being in such cramped quarters for so long. We’re already planning some hikes into the Kaimai range with some maps we got from the information Center in town. That’s all for now, we’ll send some pics of Tucker after he arrives.
Posted on

Sunrise in Katikati

Tucker in quarantine
We are settling in pretty well. We got to visit Tucker in quarantine on Sunday, he was super excited to see us. We spent about an hour with him and when we left we could hear him howling which was tough on Lara.
The weekend was productive though. We got a clothes washer and dryer, a refrigerator, and some other things at a Lions Club auction. We also got a bicycle for Lara and a Nissan Leaf. The Leaf will be delivered Thursday.
We also spoke to our landlord about how cold the house is and he was kind enough to buy insulation for the attic which I have been installing after work. It’s pretty tough to do as the attic is so low that I can’t even sit up in it. I have to slide around on my stomach, but it’s getting done. I found a bunch of cockroaches and a couple birds nests up there too that I had to clear out.
They are keeping me busy at work also. A bunch of people are out on vacation so I am doing some product design on prototypes for an upcoming trade show. It’s a good opportunity to get to know the product.
Sunrise over Katikati
The pictures are just from around my house in Katikati, haven’t had a chance to explore yet, but when I do I’ll send you guys more pics. Take care.