After a great few days in Christchurch catching up with Toby and Tessa and Steph and Sam - it was time to head to Wānaka again to check up on progress with the house reno. I'd be there from Tuesday 6 April to Sunday 11 April, "working from home" for much of it. My plan this time was to stay at a camping ground since I didn't know what state the house would be in - and even whether the building crew would be staying there!
The trip got off to a bad start. February Mike had unwisely thought that he wouldn't have any need for luggage this trip, and forgot to tell April Mike about this. $80 later I'd booked a last minute bag. Then when I arrived I discovered that the battery pack I'd been searching for in Chc for the whole trip had slipped into the bottom of my suitcase - and had been confiscated since that's a definite no-no on a checked bag.
Oh well.
I found the van soon enough, and discovered it surrounded by fencing and cones. They were trying to build a new building around it! A friendly digger driver helped me extract it. He talked to me about how good a van it was - he used to own one himself and loved the motor and it's towing ability.
After an uneventful trip over the Crown Range, first stop was to check in at the Wānaka Top 10 camping ground.
I'd booked a "Small Sealed Un-Powered Van Site" and that's exactly what I got. It was sealed. It was un-powered. And it was certainly small. My van only just fit, and even then wasn't quite level because the wheelbase was a fraction longer than the parking space.
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| Yep. Small, Sealed and Un-Powered as described. |
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| The common room is magnificent. |
There was a bit of grass behind the van, though, that would be perfect for picnic table and suchlike. But I was close enough to the common room that I didn't need to worry. The common room and toilets were seemingly brand new, and absolutely immaculate. I've never seen stainless steel with such a mirrorlike shiny surface before.
I was to get to know the common room very well over the next few days.
Now the formalities were done I was keen to check out the house. No-one was there but I found my way in. It's looking superb. The prewire, plumbing and gibbing is done, and they're most of the way through the plastering. I'm pretty impressed with the job to be honest. Everything looks straight and well done. Lots of attention to detail.
The new upstairs bathroom is looking really, really good. We aren't changing it much - we made it bigger by cribbing into a storage area and are putting in a proper vanity instead of the stupid little barely-adequate handbasin built into the wall. There's an option to add a shower later. It baffles me why they didn't do it this way in the first place. There was no reason to make a cramped little toilet room other than to create a big dead space that could accumulate junk you couldn't get to.
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| Hello house! |
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| Dining room and soon-to-be kitchen |
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| A much better upstairs bathroom. |
I stayed a while and pondered and wrote a list to discuss with Damian the builder. Then it was off to Carpet Court to look at carpet samples and choose what shade of generic grey carpet I wanted.
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| Yup. It's grey. |
The camping ground is a little out of town, heading towards Edgewater and Glendhu Bay. I went for a stroll to figure out how to get to the lake. It was reasonably straightforward and about 10min walk away through a park and emerging right at That Wānaka Tree, sadly looking a bit more sparse than it used to. I think that all the attention isn't helping it.
A quick trip to the supermarket let me stock up on my usual fare - cereal for breakfast, wraps for lunch and - getting gourmet here - nachos and beans for one or two dinners. Then it was time for dinner, netflix, and sleep.
Wednesday to Friday were work days for me. So they mostly consisted of ignoring the beautiful sunny day and the wonderful surroundings - and working on my laptop in the common room facing a blank wall. I got out for a run though, and walked into town (half an hour each way) when I didn't run.
My run was great, heading along the lakefront track about halfway to Glendhu Bay and back, even though it felt pretty hard. Such wonderful views. Lots of money in the lakefront houses.
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| On my run - halfway out to Glendhu Bay |
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Nachos with beans, sour cream, red onion and capsicum,
with Behemoth Hazy IPA.
Bet you're jealous. |
I caught up with Damian the builder on Thursday morning. I tried to put my best Project Manager persona on, but of course ended up being upsold a concrete pad under the pergola. No complaints though, he's doing a great job and is on time on budget so far.
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| Friday Morning selfie |
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| Friday Evening. Will it really rain tomorrow? |
Saturday was work at the house day - and of course, was also the only rainy day of my trip. I suited up in tramping pants, merino top, running jacket and hat. I'd get damp, but I wouldn't get cold.
My first job was to fill the skip that arrived on Friday with builder's waste so that the landscaper could get to the back yard. I was enthusiastically firing wood and gib into the skip when the neighbour across the road started calling out to me. Hmm, ok - I hadn't thought about the fact that crashing around with a skip was pretty rude at 8:30am on a Saturday! I was mortified. It wasn't like I didn't have other jobs to do - namely pulling all the junk out of the back garden ready for putting in the skip. I sheepishly went around the back and fossicked in the back yard instead.
About an hour later the neighbour - Julie - turned up with coffee for me! She felt bad for yelling at me. I told her I was going to bring her a takeaway coffee because I felt bad for making so much noise so early. We chatted for a while and both felt much better afterwards I reckon.
I needed to measure up the windows for double glazing and blinds, so popped out to Mitre 10 for a measuring tape. (It's annoying little things like that, that you don't have when you are working remotely like this.) On the way I stopped for a coffee and glanced at the van's WoF. It expires next week! Hmm, dilemma. Closest place to get a WoF on a Saturday was ... VTNZ Queenstown. My plan was to park the van on the street, and I couldn't do that with an expired WoF. There was only one thing for it, to drive to Queenstown and back.
It was really tipping it down now and to be honest, driving to Queenstown was a bit more appealing than working in the heavy rain.
I was still 10km or so from Frankton when all my coffees caught up with me. I really really needed a pee. In desperation I took a side road to look for some secluded bushes. Of course, in 2021, 10km from Frankton means 'industrial park' not 'secluded rural area'! Could I find a cafe? A quiet cul-de-sac with closed warehouses and some foliage? Suddenly I realised ... there was the VTNZ. I sped into the WoF queue and walked awkwardly but purposefully into their office, past the receptionist and to their toilet.
I was fortunate that the van passed its WoF with flying colours and I was soon on my way back over the crown range in the pouring rain.
On one of the corners the van decided to remind me who was boss and went all squirrely under me. (I wasn't going fast; I guess the back wheels had no weight on them and I must have hit a deep puddle and/or some oil or something). It reminded me how exhilarating it is to drive an older vehicle without stability control. Oh what the young 'uns miss out on!
I stayed in my lane and kept it all under control, but that corner left a big spike on my new smart watch's Stress Meter.
When I got back to Wānaka around 1pm, the rain had nicely let off. After a quick cafe lunch it was back to work. I finished loading up the builder's waste (a bit more quietly this time) and then started on the junk from the back garden. There was lots of it, and lots of variety! From the many plant pots and old rotten garden chairs, to occasional tables, a large cable reel, a sofa frame, an old steel chimney cut into sections, some doors from a landrover, a mattress and many other items. I loaded them all into an old wheelbarrow with a flat tyre and lugged it all out front and into the skip. I reckon there was half a skip of rubbish and so the skip is looking pretty full now.
There were a few items that really needed a two person lift to get into the skip. The mattress was the worst. Wet, heavy, shapeless and rotten - so if you tugged too hard on any one place it came away in your hands. I set up a ramp into the skip with pallets, and levered it up half the way with the wheelbarrow. Repeated tugging finally exposed the springs and gave me something solid to grab. Reluctantly it eased into the skip at last.
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| Happiness is a full-ish skip |
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| Blue skies over the lake, now that I've finished work in the rain |
Then back to the camping ground for a hot shower and a change into not-soggy clothes.
Sunday is my last day here. Up early for a coffee and muffin for breakfast as that was all that was available at 7:30am. Spent more time at the house, measuring up for blinds and double glazing. and enjoying the place. I like this house. It has a really nice feel to it. It'll be really great when it's finished.
Since I had plenty of time to get to my flight at 4pm I drove the long way round to Queenstown - along Lake Dunstan to Cromwell and then back up Kawarau Gorge. Beautiful. Definitely the more scenic route - and the Crown Range is not to be sniffed at.
Found a park on a quiet street near the airport and wandered back to await my flight.
This trip wasn't as fun as the last one to be honest. I missed Angela and I missed human interaction. I guess I wasn't as busy this time around - last trip I was doing long hours demolishing stuff so didn't get time to get lonely. Angela's coming with me next time - hopefully to see the finished house! - which I'm looking forward to much more.
