Hi It's Mike here. Angela has written about her Fielday adventures so I'm going to talk about the weekend.
On Saturday we both did very little, Angela was running on four hours sleep after she drove non stop from near Hamilton to Wellington and then ... read for three hours before she dozed off. Too much V on the way? I dropped Christine at the airport for her overseas adventure. Angela retrieved the remains of her greenhouse and reassembled it - it is more intact than we thought!
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| Greenhouse reassembled, ready for duct tape |
That was enough for one day, Angela did not a lot of anything else and I supported her by doing next to nothing as well.
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| Smudge watches the birds |
On Sunday however we made up for lost time. Up early and hurtling over the Remutaka Hill for breakfast at the Greytown French Bakery (since the famous Clareville Bakery doesn't open on Sundays). Hmm, I think they may be coasting on their reputation there, the food didn't seem to be up to the usual standard I associate with them. Or perhaps the likes of La Cloche and our other local options have caught up with them.
Then we visited our workmate Shane to see his partner Holly, their new puppy Tifa (named after the Final Fantasy VII character!) and their wonderful 1899 villa. Wonderful apart from the heating bills. We admired the work they'd done so far, and the huge amount of work to tame the overgrown back yard and form a a 'blank canvas' lawn, plus olive and plum trees and a boxed in vege patch. But heating? The extra high ceilings and plasterboard over scrim makes batting and gibbing a real mission, you'd want to be in the place a long time to get ROI on that. The underfloor is inaccessible making a membrane and insulation impossible. Looks like throwing some batts in the roof space and maybe fitting a second heat pump is the best way to go.
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| They'd caught a mouse! I cleared it and put re-baited the trap with peanut butter. |
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| Beautiful coal range in the kitchen |
Now we wanted to go explore the brand new Te Ahu a Turanga road - freshly opened about a week ago. This is the replacement road to get from State Highway 2 on the east side of the island, through to Palmerston North and State Highway 1 on the west side of the island. The old Manawatu Gorge road had slipped away a few years ago and the powers that be decided a brand new 4 lane road was the better alternative to trying to restore a narrow windy road that just keeps slipping away every few years.
We figured we needed a buffer of electrons in the tank so we plugged the car in at Z Masterton and went for a wander. First stop was Reduced To Clear to shop for bargains. That's where I got my cheap Allbirds from, a few years ago! They have cheap things, and weird things, and weird cheap things. Anything they can buy in bulk for cheap. We found cheap eggs and cheap Havana coffee and coffee flavoured Snickers bars and masala flavoured potato chips. Then to Briscoes - we timed it well because they were having a sale just this weekend and we got a replacement electric blanket for lots off. Angela's side had stopped working so it was time for a new one. That was enough time to get our range up a bit so off we set.
The new road is very impressive. Nice smooth surface and it cut right through a wind farm which means you're seeing the massive wind turbines up close. We went to get out at the viewing spot but many, many people had the same idea as us and there was no parking at all so off we set again.
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| This new roundabout is the gateway to Te Ahu a Turanga |
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| Acres of tarmac and mighty wind turbines |
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| The Manawatu and Kapiti Island stretches out before us |
Back down via State Highway 57 and out at Levin with to charge again with 99km of range left - enough to get home, according to the guessometer, but with little to no buffer. We did some admin on our phones and before long it was time to set off again.
Picked up Angela's mountain e-bike from Maureen's place on the way, the first time we've used our shiny (well, matte black) new towbar. It fitted okay but Maureen put a third bungee on it to be sure to be sure and off we set again.
Home with 39km of range, pretty well empty with a safe enough buffer. On to charge, scheduled for our nightly free hours, it'll be back to 100% for no cost before we know it.
| Where | Start | End | Duration | Rate (c/kWh) | Cost | kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterton Z | 13:18 | 14:01 | 0:46 | 79c | $14.70 | 18.6 |
| Levin Z | 15:19 | 15:35 | 0:16 | 79c | $7.98 | 10.1 |
| TOTAL | 1:02 | $22.68 | 28.7 |
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