New Vinyl

The vinyl man came on Saturday and laid the vinyl which we are very pleased with it. Much better than the brown, but I think I will be sweeping and washing it a bit more than I was, as every mark shows up. Never thought of that did we? At least there isn't a lot of it!

It has added to the illusion that the van is bigger than it really is too

Rotorua walk

The weather is cloudy with no rain, but it keeps threatening to do so. It is still very mild for May too. It's suppose to rain properly tomorrow and get cold. We shall wait and see. I don't know whether to believe it or not.

I had a nice day yesterday with the tramping club. We went to Rotorua and walked the walk/cycle trail. We did about 17 ks in the end. It was nice and flat and good walking. We past thermal activity at the beginning and later we were in a little gorge with lovely trees.

Eddie went to an old truck show over in Cambridge with some of his friends from work. There was a smaller one here in Matamata on Saturday, which a friend had a truck in, so he went to that one too and caught up with Murray.

The stream in the gorge

Thermal activity

the path down to the gorge

just before the gorge

looking over the gorge

a moonscape

looking over to the heritage building

more thermal activity.  We could hear it bubbling

A Quiet Week in Matamata

It's Monday again. Man they come around fast. The shortest day isn't too far away. Whoop Whoop!

Not a lot has happened this week.

It's cooling down and we have had more rain.

We are waiting for a man to come and measure us for a plastic cover and scaffolding, so we can do our repairs without moving. If it is too dear then we will look for a shed nearby.

The jeep sold this week, so that is one less things to worry about. I am on my bike now to get to work. It is only 4 ks so not very far at all. It does mean that a shed will have to be handy to town. 

Tauriko Wetland Walk

Today and yesterday we had rain! Such a change. It's still quite warm though.

I went for a walk with the tramping club on Sunday. We walked around some of the wetlands at Tauriko near Tauranga. The toll road into Tauranga city runs along one side of it. There are lots of tracks (mostly sealed) that take you from Tauriko right into the city centre. There were lots of people biking on the paths. I imagine they would be quite busy on week days with people going to work. There is a lovely bridge across the toll road for cyclists and walkers. There are lots of walking and cycling tracks around the city. They have really embraced the concept of walking and cycling to work and for exercise. The new suburb called The Lakes has 20 ks of track around it. We explored them one day a few years ago. After the walk we had a soak in the lovely pool at Fernland Spa. A great way to finish a tramp.

Eddie went to look at a shed that we might be able to park in. It is full at the moment, but should be free in 3 or 4 weeks time. It would be a 8 -9 k ride in for me every day and home again of course. It is a busy road, so we aren't sure that it will be suitable. Especially on foggy Waikato mornings. We missed out on one in town by 3 weeks. Isn't it always the way. We weren't looking 3 weeks ago.

I had my flu and shingles vaccination today. Eddie is going to have his later this afternoon.

A lovely sealed path to walk on

A view over the wetlands. There were lots of ducks hiding from the hunters

Some little grey fungi growing beside the path

road from the bridge

the bridge called Whakapaewaka

A hiccup

The weather still is sunny. We have had a few frosts this last week.Eddie is using the bike cover to protect his windscreen from frost. It works really well, so there's a handy hint for you.

Now the news I didn't write about when we got home from our holiday. We have just got our heads around it this weekend.

When we got home, we were lining up the caravan against the patio. I was watching the wheels to make sure they didn't run into the patio and Eddie was watching me. As a result the van ran into the fence. It damaged the back wall quite badly. When we looked, we found the wooden framing was all wet and mouldy. As you can imagine, it was quite a shock. When we bought it, the previous owners had done the floor at the back left which had rot in it. We don't know if the man who mended it put things back a bit wrong or not, but it looks like we have had water leaking in for 2 years where the roof meets the wall. For some reason the framing in the back is wood while all the rest is aluminium. Go figure.

This weekend we have pulled all the inside wall off. We have rigged up a tarpaulin to keep the rain out. We are taking it one step at a time to get it right. It's going to take a while.

We were going to go to Australia in August, but sadly, that isn't going to happen now.

We are quite distressed about the whole thing. Not the least, because it doesn't look like we will be traveling again next summer now.