Vaccinated

 We had our second injection on Monday with no repercussions, so all good there.

Now we have gone back to level 3 Eddie went to work this morning. It was rather cruel and unusual punishment after 2 weeks off. He had to start at 4 am. A bit of a shock to the system.

I won't go back to work until level 2 as the garden centre doesn't open until then.

This is a bit of a view through a hedge on my walk yesterday, with a nice view of the Kaimai Ranges in the distance.

We got our new heater from Mitre 10 on Friday. Eddie ordered it on line. It only took 2 days to arrive. It is a Kent microthermic heater and we think it is one of the best we have ever had. It clicks off and on at a set temperature. We can also set a timer on it if we want to. I have to remember to run the vacuum cleaner over it regularly to keep the dust out. We don't want to break this one.

 

Well we are coping with our new lock down. We have slipped into retirement mode and so the days go by quite well. I have been going for walks, but Eddie is keeping well away from everyone. In saying that he worked yesterday on some job that was apparently essential. My job at the garden centre is on hold at the moment as it can't open at level 4. The vege shop where I used to work is open and they asked me today if I would like to work there over lock down. I said yes I would and then I changed my mind when I got home. I don't suppose they are too pleased with me, but I don't feel quite so safe this time for some reason.

Our heater stopped working the other night, so we put the diesel heating on. The next morning Eddie pulled it apart and it was so full of dust. We vacuumed it out and it went again. We thought well that was a nice cheap fix, but it stopped again last night. It is only 1 year old with a 2 year warranty, but it may cost more to send it away than to buy a new one. It's a bit hard to get a new one at the moment with everything shut down, so we have borrowed one from a friend. Who knew the caravan was so dusty. 

There isn't a lot to report again this week. Maybe when we come out of lock down.

Fridge in situ at last

 

Well much excitement here on Saturday, putting in the new fridge. Getting it through the door easily should have been our clue. It is taller than the old one and a bit narrower. As it is screwed in to keep it from falling out, when we are traveling, something had to be done. Eddie cut out under the cupboard above the gap to make it fit there and then we got some wood to fill in the gap. (Good old Mitre 10) Of course we had to get 2 lengths for each side as 1 wasn't wide enough, but 2 was too wide, so he had to buzz one down got them glued together and all seemed to be well. We are lucky that Jim has all the things in his shed, so we can do this stuff. Eddie measured again and yes all is well. We pushed it in to the gap and it got about half way and stopped. The right side had a slight bow in it that we couldn't tell by looking, so out it all came and a bit more buzzed off the wood and all was well. As you can imagine, there was a lot of wailing and teeth gnashing. As it is narrower, the door shelves don't hold as much, but it is deeper, so it balances out.

The door is black, so it shows all the marks. Sigh.

This one has screw holes inside the fridge with little covers to go over the screws so you can't see them. The old one had the screws on the outside and we were a mystified where to put them to start with.

I went for a walk with the tramping club Sunday. We went into Hamilton and walked from the gardens, down one side of the river and back again. We had lunch at the gardens café when we got back. It was a nice day out and good to catch up with old friends again.

New Refrigerator

 

We got the old fridge out on Sunday morning. It came out of its gap easily enough, but getting out the door was quite another matter. The fridge was about 4 mm too big to go through. In the end Eddie had to take the door frame off. We think they must put the fridge in place before they make the door. In the afternoon we took the old one too the dump and got rid of it. We were using a couple of little electric fridges that are like chilly bins. 

The new one was in the shed, but Eddie has been late home 3 nights in a row and too tired to be bothered getting it in. He was home at a reasonable last night, so we got it in. It is a lot lighter than the old one, so that was a bonus.  It went through the door ok, but it was too tall for the gap! It is supposed to be a replacement for the old one. Eddie was able to trim off a bit of the cupboard above it. It is also narrower, so there is a gap at the side where it is supposed to be sealed against the side of the hole made for it. Some more work is required.

It has a nice black, metal door, so now I can use magnets on it for the first time in 4 years. I have been using blutack to put things on the fridge up until now. The black might be hard to keep clean. 

Taupo and a dead refrigerator

 

We went to Taupo at the weekend, where we checked out 4 camping grounds. Now we have to decide which one to choose. We think we will be going there about mid September. We are just waiting on Swaps to give us a date.

While we were there, we visited Eddie's niece's nice new house. It's a lovely sunny home with views out to Taupo township and the lake on one side and the country side the other. It is right up on top of a ridge. Anita said it can get quite windy too and she feels like they are going to get blown away. Her sister, Brenda and partner, Riley came up as well. We haven't seen them for a while, so it was a lovely catch up on all the family doings.

When Anita took her daughters to riding lessons, we went to our accommodation for the night. We stayed at De Brett's. We had a studio unit, which was very comfortable. We had dinner at the hotel next door. I had a duck leg and Eddie had steak. For dessert we had an apple tart with walnut ice cream and salted caramel. It was all very nice and satisfying. Our breakfast in the morning was free as part of our accommodation deal. It was huge and we were full for the rest of the day.

The view from our unit.

On Tuesday, when I was putting the groceries away, I found a puddle of raspberry juice in the freezer. It would seem that our refrigerator/ freezer has died. I bought a thermometer yesterday and the freezer is at 4 degree's and the fridge is at 10. Mmmmm. Not good. Luckily I had room in the little freezer we have to put things into and Eddie's beer fridge has been called into service. The freezer has become the fridge and the fridge has become a slightly cool cupboard. Eddie ordered a new one last night, so we will just have to manage until it arrives. It is solar only , so with our new system functioning well, it should be all ok. The old one is 13 years old, so suppose it has done good service. we think everything in our caravan is done now. At least we hope so!