Blogs from Takanini, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Hello and Happy New Year and indeed, Happy New Decade to you all!! We hope you had a great Christmas and are all set for the things to come this year... This has been our second Christmas living in NZ and I have to admit, I still haven't got used to it being summer. I left much of the Christmas shopping to the last minute as I couldn't quite get excited about it when it was all hot and sunny outside! We didn't have much planned this Christmas as it was only going to be us. You may recall that last year we celebrated with Mayuko, Mia and Isaac and had lots of fun in the process. This year, Glynn and I were invited to Liz and Allard's for a Christmas barbecue dinner with friends and ... read more

The last three build days were different than the rest because the team broke up into our home stays. Our host families were charming and considerate hosts. Thursday saw the completion of the roof, insulation, and pre-inspection electrical. Brad, Bill, and Mike worked on the water drainage system. Kirk made many scenic runs to the quarry and offered tours to overworked team members to view the New Zealand landscape (a nice diversion). Brad (The Machine) got a chance to operate a backhoe…scary! The house really looks great. I only hope that we left enough work for to complete for the next group (just kidding)! Friday night we had a farewell party with the family, host families, Habitat Board members, and the Hawkins construction guys. Hawkins Construction was so impressed with Habitat and the partnership that ... read more

Today was spent working on fascia, soffets, valleys, windows, doors, painting and other acitivities. We have now prepared for the roofers who will be showing up tomorrow. We will be able to go back to the site tomorrow even with the roofers there. Another day without any rain, but not much sunshine also. This evening, we went to St. Mary's Catholic church in Papakura for dinner. The women who have brought us lunch invited us over for dinner at their church. Frances and her family, along with the workers (Mike, Richard, Paul and some of there family members) were also there. It was really fun to spend some time with all of them outside of working on the site. We had a wonderful meal and a lot of good fellowship this evening. There was a short ... read more

Another day and one without rain. A good thing. As we started the day, our leader, Mike, thought that we would be delayed as showers were expected, but to our happiness, clouds, a bit of sun and wind. We made great progress by finishing what we could on the roof. I estimated, 15,000 nails, or at least it felt like it. The house is wrapped in with the weather sealing product and the scaffolding has been delivered and ready to put up. We have a house or more than the shell. The end of the work day ended with the successful flying of the Habitat for Humanity banner above the house. Great photo! We headed out to Mission Bay, downtown Aucklund to meet up with Dawn from the NZ Habitat office. A great meal of fish ... read more

The second day on the site we had to endure rain and wind. The trusses we were waiting on never arrived so we spent it shealthing the outside with hardie board. Brad and Lynne are now experienced plumbers so if anyone back home needs plumbing see Brad and Lynne. Shannon used a pneumatic nailer for the first time. Hopefully tomorrow will have more work for us to do.... read more