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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 continued working on our canoe. The basic canoe consists of 25 panels, 15 of which make up the hull; 3 panels for the bottom, 6 panels for the middle row and 6 panels for the top row. It was time to start putting these panels together, but when Ferdi double checked our measurements he found that two of the little panels in the top row were too small. We couldn’t figure out why, so we drew them out again on a piece of left-over ply. Before cutting we double checked all our measurements and found that the panels were still too small. We scratched our heads for a while, then assumed that the plans must have a type-o. We all know what happens when you assume things, so we did some more investigating and found that yes, it was human error; our human error. We made the corrections then cut and sanded the new panels. We were ready to start the assembly.

It was also our first time using Polyester Resin and we didn’t know exactly how to go about it. The resin is veeeery expensive and once mixed you have a maximum of 20 minutes before it becomes useless, so it was a little stressful. We mixed the resin with sawdust to make a filling paste, applied it to the edges of the panels and lined up the panels using the exact measurements provided. We loaded paint containers and gas bottles on the joints to make sure they were flat. Then we had to wait 24 hours for the resin to cure.

Before we left John and Margaret gave Ferdi two Flounder. They often have too much, because people in the camp catch too many fish and give the surplus away. Then John and Margaret end up with too many and give those away, because they are very nice people and because Flounder doesn’t freeze well, so lucky Mr Ferdi was on the receiving end of all that surplus.

Back home Ferdi gutted the Flounder and then prepared them for dinner, opting to fry one and bake the other in the oven. As we sat chatting a rat came walking up to the bus. He was very slow, stopping every few meters to rest. It must’ve gotten a dose of poison. We felt sorry for it, but you have to try and control them somehow, and poison seems to be the most effective.

After dinner we spent the rest of the night making koeksisters, only finishing around 9:30pm. We enjoyed a cuppa and a bit of reading before calling it a night.

Today’s highlights:
1. Starting to put our canoe together.
2. Having Flounder for dinner.

Thursday, December 24th

We were excited (and a little apprehensive) to see if our gluing experiment had worked. Unfortunately we found that the panels simply came apart when we tested the joints. We suspect that we had added too much sawdust to the resin mix. After cleaning up the panel edges we sanded them down in preparation for our second attempt. Instead of gluing the panels again we did a test, using less saw dust. We found that the mixture was strong and that a little gap between the panels allows the resin to set better.

We worked a bit on the booth, cleaning away excess glue and Talita used a clothes iron and a damp cloth to iron out the dents the clamps had made in the wood. After lunch Paddy came by for a visit. He was impressed with the progress on the booth and we spent an hour chatting. After completing our cleaning duties we glued the bottom panels together. We didn’t want to glue too many panels, because we wanted to see if we’d really gotten the correct mixing ratio.

Around 3pm Tony and Siubhan arrived. We were very happy to see our friends and promptly introduced them to John and Margaret. We showed them around a bit then joined Margaret and John for tea and biscuits. Back at the bus we gave them the tour and helped them settle into the cabin we’d prepared for them. They were exhausted, having travelled almost 24 hours straight. After a shower we opened a few beers and enjoyed the late afternoon sun and friendly chatter. They gave us a little digital photo frame keychain for Christmas. Talita had wanted one of these for a while now and was delighted, but we also felt a little bad because we didn’t have anything to give them in return. We sat chatting late into the night, thoroughly enjoying having our friends here.

Today’s highlights:
1. Successful glue test.
2. Tony and Siubhan’s arrival.

Friday, December 25th

Merry Christmas everybody! May you all have a blessed day and may God our Father bless you and keep you all the rest of your days.

In the morning Talita baked banana muffins as a gift for Paddy, because he loves having cakes and things with his tea. Tony and Siubhan were still asleep when we left for the park where John and Margaret were very surprised to see us. They’d not expected us to come by on Christmas day, but we really enjoy helping at the park. We were also eager to check on the panels we’d glued yesterday and found that they appeared to be solid. We mixed more resin and glued the 6 middle panels together.

After our cleaning duties we had tea with John and Margaret and they gave us a big box of cookies for Christmas. Back home we found Tony and Siubhan enjoying a coffee and the view from the veranda. They’d only awoken near noon and were feeling much better after nearly 12 hours of sleep. Talita made a peppermint tart and at 2:30pm we drove to Gary and Rose for a late Christmas lunch.

The meal was a feast, with roast ham, chicken, salad, mashed potato and more. Then came dessert; koeksisters, peppermint tart, strawberry trifle and Christmas pudding. We ate to our hearts content and all suffered stomach aches from all the food. The meal was delicious, but it was the company that made it great. Karamea is a gorgeous place, but it’s the people here that make it truly special. Most people here would give you the shirt off their back without thinking twice about it. It’s so different from where we grew up in, where few people care about anyone but themselves. Where image had taken the place of humanity. We know for sure that we’ll never be able to return to that lifestyle.

After lunch we sat outside on the lawn while Kernan, Gary and Rose’s two year old son, ran around the lawn like he had all the energy in the world. We envied his energy, barely being able to move ourselves. He’d gotten some balloons in a Christmas pack and was popping them with great joy. Then Ferdi introduced him to the fun of the water balloon and from that moment on he wanted nothing more than to burst them. He’s still a little small, so he couldn’t throw them high enough so they’d pop nicely. Therefore it was up to Ferdi to throw the balloons high into the air. When they hit they’d spray water all over the place, to the great delight of little Kernan.

When we‘d popped half the balloons in the pack it was time to say goodbye. We left just after 8pm and drove over to Paddy’s. We found him lying in bed listening to music at top volume. Naturally we were invited in for tea. We made the introductions and Talita gave Paddy his banana muffins. In return he gave Talita a present; one of his beautiful flutes. We were blown away, having eyed these flutes right from the start. We spent the rest of the night chatting and Paddy played some music for us.

It was a lovely Christmas day, but we still missed our family and friends back home. There really is nothing that can replace your people at times like these.

Today’s highlights:
1. Great Christmas lunch.
2. Receiving a flute from Paddy.

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