Just as well we did the shopping on Saturday as later that evening Marilyn rang to say that she & David were heading our way and would we like to meet up. Now, we met David & Marilyn on their narrowboat in the UK just over 4 years ago, you can catch up with that adventure starting here, as well as in NZ. They arrived in the rain at Uretiti in the late afternoon, quickly got themselves sorted and parked up before joining us for a cuppa and then staying on for dinner.
All settled in and parked up
David & Marilyn are vegetarian, however we won’t hold that against them. I had made a leek and asparagus quiche, focaccia bread with cherry tomatoes and balsamic, and a chickpea salad with a peanut & miso dressing (a Yottam Ottolenghi recipe) all of which went down very well with enough left over for Marilyn to have the following evening whilst David joined us in having snapper.
Peanut Butter and Miso chickpea salad (photo borrowed from Ottolenghi’s website, as per usual I forgot to take any photos)
I did the tried and true snapper with tomato, orange and avocado salad as it always goes down a treat with everyone who tries it and I’m assured that David enjoyed it.
Dinner
Meanwhile, one of our light strips wasn’t working which led Roy tracking the wiring through the various cupboards which then led onto an investigative adventure to find out the source of the problem. Of course this resulted in opening up of multiple cupboards which meant a mass explosion of contents to a raft of “why do we have this?” and “do we need this?” type of questions.
Man at workCables and wires everywhere.
The issue wasn’t resolved, however a plan B was instigated which will suffice until another day. It did also make us ask the question “why do we still have a TV?” The one in the above photo plus it’s mate in the bedroom haven’t been switched on for at least 4 or 5 years as we both watch what we prefer on our devices by streaming. Roy bluetooths the sound to his hearing aids and I used headphones to listen whilst watching want we want when we want, we also use them to listen to podcasts and I listen to audiobooks. And I’m sure our neighbours are pleased they don’t have to listen to a TV being played at full volume.
But no TV watching on this occasion, we were introduced to a new old game called Crosshand Poker. It’s sort of a combination of poker and scrabble, with poker hands being the play but joining onto other play. It’s a great game which we enjoyed, so much so I managed to find a set online and purchased it.
Intense concentration
A few days later Marilyn & David continued on their travels around the Far North with lots of information and instructions under their belts. But did they heed any of the advice? Apparently information was accepted but not necessarily absorbed which resulted in a few extra kilometres travelled over some narrow windy roads. They do say that it’s the journey not the destination that is important, but a tired and weary Marilyn may not quite agree 😜.
I behaved myself, I promise! Yes, I was home alone for a couple of nights whilst Roy headed to Auckland for a funeral and to catch up with all three sons, Simon, Jason and Antony. It just so happened that the day after the funeral there was a function scheduled for a group of Roys old mates from his IBM working days. An opportunity not to be missed so he stayed on in Auckland for that.
Meanwhile, I was trying my very best to be on good behaviour whilst he was gone, Garry was here at Uretiti to lead me astray. We didn’t get up to much really, just a couple of trips into Whangarei to pick up bits and pieces for his new caravan. There was no fishing done as the weather wasn’t the best with light rain falling both days and it had also become quite chilly….I’m a fair weather fisherperson!
Meanwhile I did manage to organise and book our flights to the UK next year, always good to get that done and sorted…only 175 days to go apparently! And something to look forward to and plan what we want to do whilst we are over in that part of the world.
Itinerary all booked and confirmed. We can highly recommend Sarah, our travel consultant, she has organised our trips for the past 6 years as well as Antony’s (he’s going next month), nothing is a bother and she always comes up with great deals.
Garry left, Roy returned, I bet that made heads turn and tongues wag! Haha. We got on with life in general and did the usual chores ie. washing, tidying etc before heading out on Friday night for dinner with Bruce & Heather. Bruce used to work for IBM, they now live in Mangawhai and it was a great opportunity to meet up. We went to Cove Cafe in Waipu Cove for dinner, and it was a great meal. We will definitely be going there again. They have other a few other cafés in the region including Dune in Mangawhai and Quay in Whangarei, all to the same high standard.
We managed to solve the problems of the world and in particular NZ creating lots of conversation and banter.
Of course you will notice a dearth of photos yet again in this blog, I just get so involved with actually talking to people face to face I forget that I have a phone with me to take photos!!!
Roy had an appointment in Whangarei on Saturday morning so we went off to that as well as getting the grocery shopping done and a few other chores which were all managed in between rain showers. Then back to Uretiti for a few more days of R&R.
It’s nearly time to move on and think about eventually heading to Shakespear for the Summer. Let’s hope that this year we get summer!!!
Where does the time disappear? All of a sudden another week has gone and sometimes I’m not sure what we have done but somehow another weekend rolls around.
After getting the car back from the garage I headed over to Whakapirau to spend the day with Jacky, as she is confined to barracks for the next wee while as she has broken her leg. After having surgery with pins and plates knitting her back together, she is not allowed to put her foot on the floor for 6-8weeks but with the aid of a walker and crutches she can hop around slowly. Not being accustomed to sitting still for any length of time, I thought I would provide a distraction and be her assistant/nurse/minion for the day and give Chris a break!
We spent the day doing some handwork but mainly talking before I headed back home. I will go over again next week for a couple of days and make myself useful.
The next day we both headed into One Tree Point to see Gary & Marg, where we spent a lovely few hours talking and laughing, these two always make me laugh which is good for the soul. Gary had bought himself a new iPhone, and as mine is very old (almost ready for MOTAT), I bought his relatively new old phone from him. Next will come the trying to work out how to transfer everything from my old phone to the new phone, this is when I need the grandkids to assist! But in the end it was a very quick, easy and simple process that I accomplished on my own.
Garry came to join us and to do a bit of fishing, however that was fraught with disaster as on the second day of fishing, the drone decided to fly out, then spin in circles before dropping into the sea, never to be seen again!! After lots of talking with those in the know, it is apparently probably due to interference from something like wifi, phones, even hearing aids and pacemakers can interfere with frequencies and disrupt things. Garry was heading off to go and purchase a replacement the following day.
We made a quick trip down to Auckland as our daughter in law Anita’s mother had passed away and it was her funeral. We were there to support her and Simon on the day through this trying time. However, things were to take a dramatic turn as just as we were about to leave after the service and we were saying our farewells, Simon received word that his mum had just passed away. A very sad time for Simon & Jason, although it was expected, just not quite so soon. We stayed on for a while with Simon before heading back to Uretiti.
We were soon back home for a day or so before I headed over to Whakapirau to annoy Jacky and be her nurse for a couple of days whilst Chris was away. Delicious food was made and eaten, lots of talking went on and a little bit of craft work was done. Jacky is extremely talented and is currently making Korowai – traditional Māori feather cloaks. She has made a couple already and is in the process of making another.
Jacky working on the latest cloak, with her left leg in a brace up on a chair. Completed KorowaiAnd another completed cloak in a different style
Back to the RV and a few days of doing some routine bits and pieces before Garry was back with not just a new drone but a new caravan! Apparently whilst I was off playing nursemaid, Roy and Garry had gone to look at a new caravan, they liked what they saw and before you knew what was happening, the caravan was hitched up and on its way to join us.
More fishing, more tales told, and plans were made for the next few weeks as well as for next year, but more on all that later.
I mentioned in an earlier post from a few weeks ago that I would explain what happened with our black tank, so here goes!
WARNING: This post will discuss the maintenance and care of the black holding tank in an RV/Bus/Motorhome, that is the tank that holds human waste ie. poos and wees! DONOT read any further if the subject offends.
We had emptied the black tank before we took the van in to have a new loo installed, which highlighted not only a bit of rot in the floor but we were reliably told that our black tank was definitely not empty. Oh no, have we got the dreaded “poo pyramid”?
Poo pyramid
No, we do not have the pyramid of poo which forms when the vehicle is stationary for long periods of time and not enough water is used. There is a large resource of blogs/videos/articles available to read about this anomaly on YouTube and by asking Mr Google. In our case, on inspection, that is by looking down the toilet into the tank with a torch, it looked as though the base of the tank was covered in a layer of something that almost looked like compacted toilet paper. On further investigation and many hours of research later, I realised that this was in fact what is called Struvite.
What is Struvite? It is defined as a phosphate mineral crystal with an elemental composition of magnesium, ammonia, and phosphate that forms in water and is a completely natural process. In simple terms its the black tank equivalent of kidney stones.
Magnesium is a byproduct of hard water, Ammonia is a byproduct of urine and urea and phosphate is a major element of organic matter, food and detergents. They come together in crystal formation to form a rock like substance that then lines the tank and pipes.
Examples of struvite buildup in a pipe and other forms and colours of the deposit.
Struvite causes a scale-like formation in pipes in sewage and waste water treatment plants, heat exchangers, and many applications in the marine environment and RVs to name a few. Struvite can prove to be a major problem for Recreational Vehicle (RV) owners where hydro-flushing, mechanical cleaning, or the use of acids are needed to rid of the buildup that can clog up the pipes and systems as well as rendering those monitoring sensors as ineffective.
It can also occur in household toilets and pipework, especially in hard water areas and is noticeable in toilet bowls, it looks like there is calcification buildup in the base of the toilet bowl.
I spent many, many, hours reading, watching videos and researching the many many articles on the subject, there are a huge number of YouTube videos on the causes, treatment and removal of struvite from black tanks in particular. Most of them seemed to require the need to employ someone who specialises in basically water blasting the inside of the tanks – this seems to be more of a specific job in the USA as I’ve never heard of anyone doing this in NZ. Or we could purchase a special back flush valve attachment and the rest of the gear and do it ourselves however this is more suitable to waste systems where the pipework is in a direct line from the tank to the outlet, ours is not as it twists and turns.
In the end I contacted a company in NZ that supplies a product called Rydlyme, this to me seemed to be the best, most efficient, effective and safe method to remove struvite. Rydlyme is non-toxic, biodegradable, and can be safely disposed of in sewers. It’s not cheap but we decided to go ahead and give it a go. The company were extremely helpful and talked me through its use and effectiveness, I was most impressed with their helpfulness and efficiency.
We had 20litres of Rydlyme delivered for when we headed down to the van before returning it to the repair shop. We put the Rydlyme into the tank with a few litres of water. It’s most effective application, we were told, is to be continually pumped and cycled through, as in it would take 15-30minute to successfully complete the task, however, it would work just as well by being left to sit in the tank for at least 24hrs and as we were heading to Antony’s for the weekend, we could safely leave it standing for around 48hrs as that is just how timing worked for us.
On our return, we emptied the tank and were amazed at how much extra liquid came out, as in probably close to 80litres. Remember the tank was supposedly empty and we had only put in the 20litres of Rydlyme with a few litres of water. It did not smell nor was it offensive in any way but it certainly removed all the struvite in the tank and the pipework. A few extra litres of fresh water were put through to rinse out the tank, what an excellent result.
The next thought is how can we prevent this from occurring again? The answer is water, make sure you use plenty of water when flushing to dilute the contents, especially as uric acid production is apparently increased, by men in particular, as they age, as well some medications affect uric acid production, and of course what you eat and drink. A water softener is also a good additive to use. There are plenty of recipes for what is called the Bio-Geo method of treating your waste tanks, each one slightly different in the products they use depending where in the world you may be. It is up to you to choose your own methodology and recipe. The thing to remember is that your black tank is a holding tank NOT a septic tank, therefore you need to be able to flush the tank out cleanly and effectively (ie. make it slippery) rather than be concerned about decomposition.
Why did this occur now and not before? Well, that’s a function of three major factors;
1. We haven’t been moving as much as usual in the past 18 months having been in the UK for 6 months, then at Shakespear for another 3 months and sitting still for long periods whilst housesitting.
2. We would usually let the tank get fairly full before emptying so as to create a good volume, or wooosh when emptying as this is what is recommended. But recently we have been more frequently using a tote tank to decant the tank into (to negate the need to drive the RV to a dump station) which takes around 40litres at a time and as it’s done every week the tank does not get full enough to empty completely.
3. We normally give the tank a good rinse out or back flush after emptying at the dump station but we’ve been a bit slack on this of late especially when using the tote tank. We would usually attach a hose at the dump station and pass the hose through the toilet window and flush the tank out by filling the tank through the open valve in the toilet NB. but only if there aren’t others waiting to use the dump station – we don’t want to be one of “those” people!! Note to self: use lots of water especially to rinse out the tank after emptying.
The new porcelain loo!
I usually always put a few litres of water into the bottom of tank after emptying, I think I may have been a bit slack in this regard as well (trying to save water and all that). This prevents any residue drying out and hardening but adding water also starts off the next lot of dilution and decomposition. Trying to save water is silly really as we don’t really use that much water particularly if you compare how much we would use in a week compared to an average household. Our water tank holds around 280litres of water and we would use around a tank full for the two of us in 10-14 days depending on how frugal we are being, whereas the average person in NZ uses between 140-170litres per day (according to Watercare Auckland).
It is a good job well done, and one we hope NOT to have to do again so long as we maintain the tanks correctly. I hope this has been of some help to some of you.
Someone has flicked a switch and turned the lovely warm fine weather off and given us cold, very windy and wet conditions. It’s very unpleasant out there, very wild and woolly to say the least. We are about 250m from the beach however our RV/bus/van/home is covered in sand. I did venture down to the beach for a look but the last 10m were a nightmare as I was getting sandblasted and it was quite painful. But I did manage to take a quick video.
Very windy and rough conditions.
Garry came to join us late last week and to do a bit of fishing, however, the luck had changed and the first couple of goes were unproductive before success on Saturday morning. The fellas went down to the beach to have another fish around lunch time but they were back quite quickly I thought. Oh no, the worst possible thing had happened, the drone had flown out to around 160m off shore before stopping, then turning in circles and before dropping into the sea. We are not sure why this happened but it’s a bit strange as on 2 previous occasions it has done something similar but always returning to base. It has only every happened to the drone off this beach so we are wondering if someone is using some sort of frequency blocking device, with catastrophic results in this last instance. Who knows. Update: we have since been told that interference from wifi, phones, even hearing aids can affect the frequency altho we are not convinced that this was the problem here.
Previous to the above two events, Roy and I headed into Whangarei on Friday to get a few chores as well as the shopping done. We came out of the first store to find the car would not start. A kind lady jump started the car for us and we were off again, but only for about 100m when again the car just died on us…in a stream of traffic! We managed, with some kind assistance, to push the car across the road to a safe park where we made a call to an auto electrician. He was quickly with us, changed the battery but no, it’s not the battery at fault, it seems it’s the alternator. With a new battery we were able to drive the RAV to their workshop close by where the very friendly and helpful staff sourced a new alternator for us very quickly, it will be delivered on Monday and they should have it going again for us soon after. Hmmm, but we are stuck in a Whangarei, we haven’t done our shopping and none of the other chores, what are we to do? Garry to the rescue, he drove up, picked us up, dropped us at the supermarket so we could get our shopping done whilst he attended to a couple of his chores, we decided nothing else was urgent and could be put off until we got the car back next week. So we were soon on our way back to Uretiti.
So here we are, tucked up in our home with winter clothes on again, with the heating going thinking warm thoughts. Oh but I did make soup for lunch….which is a bit of a running joke. You see I have been complaining about things taking up room in the freezer that need to make way for fish, one of them being a pack of frozen peas. You see a wise man once told me that anything worth less than what you would pay for fish can make way for the said fish, therefore the peas must be used. There is another running joke about peas, you see I don’t use peas very often in fact a small pack of peas would last me a year or more but I always get some in when friends Helen & Don are around…this joke about peas goes back many, many, years when Don jokingly said something about a meal not being a meal if it didn’t have peas with it. Anyway, I had a pack of peas in the freezer left from when Don & Helen came to visit and they needed to be used. So I made pea soup.
Pea soup, delicious and warming on a miserable day
The remains of cyclone Lola did her thing and we did rock and roll a bit during the nightbut we were very fortunate to be tucked away in our sheltered parking area. Tuesday dawned a little brighter and hey ho the car is ready to be picked up. Joe & Glenys (the ex custodians here at Uretiti) offered us a lift in to Whangarei, apparently in payback for a kind deed we did for them a few years ago that they were very grateful for. So we were off into Whangarei to pick up the car.
Now, I must say, we get a hit of flack about our little car; it’s age, doesn’t look the flashest, the mileage, but we take all the criticism on the chin. It does us well, gets us from A to B (most of the time), goes on beaches, up over some rumpty old roads and has served us well, so we figured a new alternator was worth doing. The RAV has done just over 407,000kms which doesn’t include when it’s towed as it doesn’t tick over when towed, it’s been a great little workhorse besides, the man at the workshop said she’s good for at least another 500,000kms!!! It’s back on the road, running as smooth as anything, it’s almost vintage if not an antique and we are very pleased to have it back. Now hopefully it will trudge along a little bit longer…fingers crossed!
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 