more progress

The number plate is back on and the brake, indicator and park lights all work.

We have had the electrics looked at and we thought we had the problem solved when it was discovered that a metal plate was touching a wire and shorting it out. Sadly, after that was fixed it was still doing it, when the water heater was turned on. We are hoping it isn't a screw through a wire somewhere. We won't be taking off the wall, but we will run a conduit, with the wire in it, along the wall if we have too.

We had rain at the weekend, complete with thunderstorms. It was very strange not getting the washing dry on Saturday. It's fine again today. I don't think we can say the drought has broken yet.

We have put a little fan into the sky light where the air con was. It sucks out the hot air. It is what is used in boats. It runs on solar power and a battery. It can be turned off in winter. I wish we had put it in when it was really hot in the middle of summer. I have put in photos, but it might not be very clear.

fan installed

drilling the hole in the sky light

repairs update

We had a good weekend on the caravan and we now have our wall back on. Hooray.

 Eddie had to work on Saturday morning, but he was in to it about 10 30. He got all the insulation in between the framing. We had hoped to get wool as our insulation, but there only seemed to be big sized. They were too fat to fit. We went to garage door insulation instead, which is made of polystyrene.

Next job was the plywood up. Lots of glue on the frame and then on the plywood. It was easy enough as Eddie had put up some racks to hang it on to help with maneuvering and we had it in 2 halves as well. You can just see them in the photos below. Lots of screwing to hold it all in place.

I went to Mitre 10 3 times, on Saturday for glue, brushes to put it on with and screws.

On Sunday, one of Eddie's friends from work, came around and helped us. Eddie glued the plywood and Craig glued the fibreglass shell. When it was ready, Shaun and Jim gave us a hand to get it up. Once it was hanging on on the racks it was fairly easy to put in place.

Next the windows went in. Boy were they dusty and in need of a clean. They have been sitting in the shed while we were sanding.

 Eddie connected the mains power late on Sunday evening and there was nothing. We don't really know what is going on yet. Something to be investigated. We are ok with the 12 volt and gas.

And that was our exciting weekend. With any luck we will all back to normal by the end of next weekend.

Polystyrene in place

Plywood glued and screwed. Note the handy hangers Eddie put in

final layer at last!

Windows in. Cleaned and shiny.

Repairs to the 5th Wheeler

The repair for the 5^th wheeler has begun. It has taken a lot longer than we had hoped and is still not finished. Fingers crossed for this weekend. Even though we are desperate for rain, we are pleased it has been hot and dry, while we have no back wall, apart from a tarpaulin.

We started on 6^th February. It took us all day to get the wall off. The trickiest bit was getting the wiring out of the way. All our wiring comes in through the back wall (of course). In the end, Eddie cut it all, so the wall could be removed. Once it was down, it took him an hour or so to temporarily reconnect the 12 volt system, so we could ignite the gas for our shower and lighting.

Friday, Eddie's phone could no longer hold its charge, so it was off to Cambridge in the morning to get a new phone. Spark are no longer here in Matamata. Not at all convenient.

We cut out the windows for the interior wall in and cut out the framing. We were able to reuse most of the window framing, with just a little bit of rot to replace. They would have been tricky to do, so we were pleased about that.

We glued and screwed the frame to the interior wall. Two friends from Eddie's work came and helped lift it up into place on Sunday afternoon.

Most of Monday, Eddie spent soldering all the wiring back together. The only piece he was concerned about was the indicators, brake lights and park lights, as the wiring didn't seem to make a lot of sense. A friend, who is an auto electrician, came and put it together on Tuesday morning.

The fibreglass wall was covered in the remains of the mouldy plywood. I have scrapped off most of it, but it has to be right back to the fibreglass as there isn't a lot of room otherwise. Eddie has done about half with an electric sander. It is a very dusty and unpleasant job.

Windows out and the wall bared and ready to be removed

The wall out at last

Framing done. We laid it out on the fibreglass wall to get the openings in the right place.

sanding. not fun

Framing attached to the interior wall

Starting the rewiring

Our view into the shed

Wiring back in place

A tramp to the Pack Horse Track Coromandel Peninsular

On Sunday I went on a tramp to the Pack Horse Track, near Thames on Coromandel Peninsular. 

The track was originally a pack horse track for the logging of kauri trees that went on in the 19^th century. Hence the name. The weather was hot, but there was a breeze most of the day, so we didn't get as hot as we might have done. We were very pleased about that.

I have never walked on a track made of stone before. I think it was taken from the surrounding area to create the track. When we were out of the trees, we could feel the heat coming up off the stones. Some of it was laid like a cobble stone road, but not even, so, it was quite hard to walk on sometimes. There were stone stairs too that had been carved out of the rocks. Everyone's feet were very tired by the end of 12 ks.

Stone stair case

A rock formation on the track

Views from the track

A rock fall (not where we stopped)

Another view of the area

Some of the track had been badly carved out by the rain. I don't think it would be a pleasant walk in the wet.

There were a couple of spots with signs to say we were entering a slip danger zone. Please don't stop it said. So we had morning tea at one of the spots. We like to live on the edge.

The pack horse track went up quite steeply and then for a change it went up a bit more. Every now and then it went up steeper, just to keep us interested. Whew! we were soon very hot and sweaty.

We had lunch in a nice clearing called Hydro Camp. After lunch, we set off along the Billy Goat Track. Still stony and still up for a while. I kept thinking we are supposed to be going down. Eventually it did, and it went down really steeply on a stone stair case. Part of the track follows a rail line for a while, that had been used in the logging days to send the logs down on trolleys. They have the same sort of thing on the tracks around Mt Te Aroha where they took gold out in the 19th Century.

the remains of the rail incline

It took about 5 hours all together, so a big day out, but very enjoyable. I didn't have stiff legs the next day, which was nice, but I did get tired feet by the end of work on Monday. I was glad I only did 4 hours.