Monday, January 4th The weather in Karamea has gone completely mad. It’s hot and sunny one moment, and the next it’s raining like there’s a Biblical flood on the way. A few minutes later it’s sunny again! This cycle repeated over and over during the course of the day and John has taken to calling us Noah, because if the weather continues the way it does, we might just need to row out of here in our canoe! After breakfast we drove out to Gary and Rose’s place to say hi and pick up Ferdi’s sunglasses. He’d left them there on Christmas day and has been suffering ever since. We had some tea and a chat, then drove to Guppy’s to pick up the last of our wood. Back at the holiday park we had lunch ... read more

Tuesday, December 29th At 2am Talita woke Ferdi. There was a familiar gnawing sound coming from behind the fridge. After more than two peaceful weeks Mr Bus Rat was at it again. The game was a-foot, but we were ill prepared for his sudden return, all of our well laid plans forgotten during the quiet weeks just past. While Ferdi was still rubbing sleep from his eyes Talita got a thick plastic bag and a canvas bag. The idea was that when Mr Rat flies into the plastic bag and chews through it he’ll end up in the canvas bag and we’d have a chance to smash him against the floor, hopefully terminating him. Grizzly and brutal, but our options were limited. If given half a chance he’d chew his way to freedom through the canvas ... read more

Wednesday, December 23rd We continued working on phone booth, gluing the remaining battens in and pulling the back of the structure tight with the big clamps. Talita helped Margaret clean seven cabins while Ferdi helped John replace a rotten back panel on the booth. During a clumsy moment (and with John watching) Ferdi hit his index finger with the hammer. Smooth move! John said nothing and Ferdi pretended it didn’t hurt like crazy, but blood immediately started gathering underneath his nail. Ouch! The local electrician came by to fix a broken power point. He must be well into his 50’s and has a huge beard, having not shaved since he was 17 years old. His whiskers is so long it wraps around his waist! Now that’s what we’d call a proper beard! In the afternoon we ... read more

Thursday, December 17th We realized that we’ve not given much detail about John and Margaret from the Karamea Holiday Park. Well, John is about 64 years old and Margaret seems to be in her late 50’s. They’ve run the entire park on their own for the last eighteen years. About three years ago John suffered a heart attack. Luckily he was at the medical centre when it happened, otherwise he wouldn’t have survived. They’re some of the kindest people we’ve met and we really like spending time with them. We’ve also fell in love with the park. It’s beautiful and charming, even though it needs a lot of work. It’s almost like home for us. After breakfast we headed to the holiday park to start working on their telephone booth. It is in a terrible state ... read more

Friday, December 11th After performing our regular cleaning duties we decided to clean all the windows in the park. The West Coast of New Zealand has these spiders that just cover everything with their webs. If you park your car for an hour you’ll have a web by the lights, another by the window and another by the mirror by the time you return. These spiders also cover any structure they find, and the buildings in the holiday park were no exception. While we cleaned the windows we also took a broom to the buildings in an attempt to clean off some webs. The whole thing was a big job, but working together we got it done by 4pm. After a shower we spent some time reading and did some more research online. The results of ... read more