Day 334-336: Karamea, New Zealand

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Saturday, December 26th

We hadn’t had rain for a while and Ferdi had been watering the garden every morning. This morning, just after he’d watered the whole garden, it started to rain. It was the weekend, so it shouldn’t have been a big surprise. After breakfast Paddy came by with a gift for Tony; one of his flutes. Tony had mentioned that he used to play the tin whistle, so Paddy thought it a good idea to give Tony a flute. That’s Paddy for you; a little rough around the edges with a heart of gold.

We headed to the holiday park for our cleaning duties and to continue working on the canoe. The joints for the bottom and middle panels were ready to be fibreglassed, but this would be our first time using fibreglass. It was a bit of a sticky story, but we’ve read all we could about how to do it so we just did it and hoped for the best.

With the arrival of many more holiday makers at the park our cleaning duties had expanded. We now have two kitchens, five sets of showers and five sets of toilets to clean. The rain caused a lot more cleaning because people carry a lot of mud and grass into all the buildings.

Back home we found a note from our friends saying they’ve gotten bored and went for a drive. We had lunch, read a bit, then had a nap. When Siubhan and Tony returned we donned our rain gear and took them down to the building site to show them the structure we’d built. Siubhan, being an Architect, looked at the structure and building style in a whole different way. She was very impressed, but offered us a few tips on building houses in New Zealand with its earthquakes and its wet weather.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the bus. Tony and Talita were trying out their flutes while Ferdi and Siubhan played guitar and laughed at the other two struggling with their flutes. Tony and Siubhan cooked dinner for us and we opened a bottle of wine. We spent the night chatting and laughing and reminiscing about our crazy adventures in South East Asia. It’s awesome how shared experiences bond people together!

Today’s highlights:
1. Tony’s gift from Paddy.
2. Getting Siubhan’s input on building log homes.
3. Reminiscing with our friends.

Sunday, December 27th

It was still raining when we woke, so Tony and Siubhan decided to continue on with their adventure. They only have two weeks to see as much of the South Island as they can, and there’s no point sitting in the bus waiting for the rain to pass. We were sad to see them go but very happy that they came to visit. After saying our goodbyes we headed to the holiday park. We found that our fibreglassing attempt was a success, so we turned the panels over, sanded the joints smooth and filled the gaps with resin filler. After finishing our cleaning duties we applied fibreglass to the joints, then headed into Karamea for a few supplies.

There were reports that the road to Westport was closed near Little Wanganui, with parts of the road covered in 50cm of water. Luckily our friends had left early enough so they probably made it through okay. As we got to the gravel road that leads back home we saw a sign warning of flooding. Sure enough most of the road was flooded, but because the Boesman can swim we didn’t worry too much; we just picked up enough momentum and sailed through. Not even a submerged bridge could stop the swimming Boesman.

Back home we had a beautiful lunch of bread, boiled eggs, cheese and home-made hummus. Mmmmm…. We read a bit then had a nap. When we woke the rain had stopped but a fog had settled, creating a beautiful ghost-like landscape all around the bus. We made dinner then spent the rest of the evening reading and drinking hot chocolate.

Today’s highlights:
1. Successful fiberglassing.
2. Swimming home in the Boesman.
3. Home made hummus and a beautiful lunch.

Monday, December 28th

The fog was even thicker this morning, drowning out even the sound of the ocean. As the morning progressed the fog lifted and by the time we got to the holiday park the sun was almost shining again. Here we got a surprise; the holiday park had turned into a bustling little town over night! Amazing!

We helped John empty all the trash containers then spent a bit of time working on our canoe. The fiberglassing went well and we cleaned up all the edges and sanded the fiberglass splices. This was a bad idea, as we found out later. Firstly, you’re not supposed to sand the fiberglass because that’s the stuff that keeps the boat together (DUHHH!). Secondly, the fiberglass dust makes you itch like crazy! Well, you live and learn.

After finishing our cleaning duties we had lunch, then started to stitch the canoe’s hull together. We drilled holes every 15cm and using cable-ties with a popsicle stick as spacers we completed the stitching of the middle panels to the bottom panel. We were chuffed. It was starting to look like a canoe! It’s bloody huge! We then started arranging the top panels for gluing. They needed a fair bit of sanding to get them to the right configuration and it was frustrating trying to move around in the clutter without bumping into the configured panels. Eventually we got it done without killing each other and called it a day.

Back home we opened a beer, had a shower, enjoyed delicious burritos for dinner, and spent the evening reading. We were still itchy from the fiberglass, but we’ll live.

Today’s highlights:
1. Stitching a part of the hull together.
2. More Burritos and more hummus.

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Photos

Sanding the fiberglass
Baaaaad idea!