Day 289-291: Karamea, New Zealand

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Wednesday, November 11th

We slept late again, only crawling out of bed after 9:30. After breakfast we drove into town to help Bruce move. We found Bruce and Paddy sitting outside the shop on the public picnic benches. Bruce was in his element. His son, Matai Kiran Hallewell-Smith was born just before midnight last night. He was beaming and very proud. He was able to watch the birth on Skype and spent two hours afterward watching Amber and Matai.

We packed his boat and the rest of his gear and drove out to Paddy’s, who’d offered Bruce his “guest house truck” to live in. Wobbles was riding with us. Initially she was mewling the whole time, but Talita coaxed her into the cabin area where she spent some time on Talita’s lap and later gave Ferdi a turn too. When we arrived at Paddy’s and unloaded the van we found a huge kitty doo-doo in the back. Who could blame her? If you gotta go you gotta go.

The guest truck is in the back of Paddy’s property, right next to the area where we will build the house. To get there we had to cross a rough area with rocks hidden between grass polls. We quickly unloaded and on the way back we got stuck, one front wheel behind a rock, the other in front of a rock. Without four-wheel drive we weren’t going anywhere. The wet and mushy grass didn’t help much either. Paddy got one of his Landies, hooked up the winch, and pulled us free. Just as we got out, the cable snapped, but at least we were out. A few manoeuvres later and we were free from the swampy paddock.

Paddy cooked up some fries and we made chip sammies. Over tea he played some harmonica and Ferdi also gave it a try. Then he played some cello and gave Talita a short lesson. She loved it and now wants her own cello. Paddy also gave her a gift; a handmade woollen fleece bag and hat. It was great to be welcomed into his home.

We couldn’t stay much longer because we were meeting Stefan and Caroline in town around lunch time. We drove the 30km back to town and waited for more than an hour with no sign of them. We decided to wait nearer our cabin for them. There’s only one road into town from Westport, so we felt sure we couldn’t miss them. When they still hadn’t arrived by 3pm Talita went to check our email to see if there was any news. There was no email. When they still hadn’t arrived by 4pm we left them a note taped to the Global Gypsy’s window and went home. It’s strange to live without a cell phone. We’d gotten so used to being in permanent contact with the world. We expected them to be a little late because the road from Westport to Karamea takes much much longer than one anticipates. While we waited we started to disassemble the van.

Some time after 5pm our friends finally arrived. We were delighted to see each other! It’s been years since we spent time together. What are the odds; them living in London and we in SA that we’d get to meet in the most far-flung place in NZ? We sat chatting like crazy. It was like we hadn’t been apart for more than a week (except for all the stories of adventure and stuff). After a few beers they invited us over to their camping spot where Stef proceeded to cook us a delicious Thai noodle dish while Caroline fed us proper red wine (not the cheap box stuff we’d been having). We perved on their gorgeous van and had an amazing evening with our friends. There really is nothing like good friends.

Today’s highlights:
1. Playing music with Paddy.
2. Gift from Paddy.
3. Seeing Stef and Caroline for the first time in years!

Thought for the day:
When they are close by, we rarely appreciate family and good friends as much as we should. It’s the classic thing of “You don’t know what you got until it’s gone”.

Thursday, November 12th

While Stef and Caroline was struggling with the internet to do some important banking, Paddy came by to pick up some bread we’d bought for him yesterday. We got to show off our chainsaw and introduced Stef and Caz to Paddy. We had a good chat and promised to visit before they left for the rest of their journey.

We piled into their very nice van and drove out to the Oparara Arches, north of town. A 30min hike took us to one of the arches. It is massive and impossible to capture in a picture. We spent some time exploring and trying to find different angles from which to capture this enormous limestone monstrosity. During the whole process there wasn’t a moment of quiet; we were still chatting away like crazy.

After a potty break we walked to the other arch without taking the map. We ended up thinking we’d gone the wrong way (though we didn’t) and turned around. We were getting hungry anyway, so decided to head back to town. At The Last Resort Stef and Caz had their first taste of Whitebait. They weren’t too impressed. For dessert we had the most amazing cheese cake! Unbelievable!

We drove past the holiday park and picked up our van. On our door was a note from Guppy, inviting us over. We’re starting to feel like locals. We drove to building site and showed them what we’d been up to over the last few days. Afterwards we drove to Paddy’s where we introduced Stef and Caroline to Bruce. Paddy gave us permission to take them into his home and show them some of his art. Like us, they were blown away, not only by the quality and diversity of Paddy’s work, but also by the sheer volume. We felt honoured that Paddy would trust us to enter his home unsupervised.

After a bit more chatting we said goodbye to our friends. They were heading down to Greymouth this evening. They had many places to go and lots to do and see in the next week. We were ecstatic to have had the privilege of spending time with old friends in such an unlikely venue. Thanks for coming to visit us out here in the whops. We truly appreciate it and hope to see you again soon!

We had a “cuppa” at Paddy’s and he showed us some more of his work. On the way home we stopped by the Guppy’s. Their boys love us because we jump on the trampoline with them. We had a beer, made plans for dinner on Saturday, then went home. It was a great and busy day!

Today’s highlights:
1. Visiting the Arches.
2. Showing off our structure.
3. Seeing some more of Paddy’s art.

Friday, November 13th

Ferdi had spent a good portion of the night unable to sleep because his brain was busy re-designing the van interior. Seeing Stef and Caroline’s van had given him ideas of how to improve (completely change) on the design we had in mind. After a few sleepless hours he finally drifted of to sleep once more.

We started our day by stripping all the old material out of the back of our van. The Boesman was in for a make-over. The owners of Karamea Holiday Park kindly gave us a shed to work out of and with the back end empty we moved to the shed to start building. We started by making the floor panels. It was a slow and tricky affair because the inside of is anything but a box. It’s got a lot of tricky corners so we had to cut, then fit, then cut again. We repeated the process countless times until we had the right fit. Unfortunately a few ugly hidden screws scratched the beautiful surface of the only part of the floor that would be seen. We decided to redo that part when we had the time.

Unbelievably, it took most of the day to get the floor in. the continually changing weather didn’t help the progress much. It must’ve rained at least ten times during the course of the day. After a late lunch we sat discussing the specifics of the bed and storage area. With the floor in we built covers for the wheel arches. It was a bit of a shabby and unstable affair. Mmm…

At 6:30pm we called it a day. While Ferdi continued working on the design Talita made dinner. In the kitchen she got cornered by some friendly local ladies who proceeded to chat her ears off (not that she minded in the least). In the process we got invited to stay with one of the ladies if we ever travelled through Oamaru again. After dinner we had a shower, read a bit in bed, then went to sleep.

Today’s highlights:
1. Starting to build our very first home together.

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