r&m – The Vanninis' Manoeuvres

And we are off!

It’s the last two days before we leave and the mind is racing, have we got everything? have we forgotten anything? what do we need to get done before we leave?

First things first, repack the bags and weigh them to make sure we are within the 30kgs bag allowance that we are allowed each. Roy and I have 25kgs of luggage between us, that’s pretty damn good for a five and half month trip, however there is a third bag which weighs nearly 15kgs which is full of requested goodies.

A couple of kilos worth of honey, probably a similar amount of chocolate, and then there is the 8 tins of reduced cream to go with the onion soup mix to make the quintessential KiwiDip!

Although we only have around 12.5kg of luggage each, it still does feel like we have far too much but at least we are way under our allowable limit.

Monday 13th May and it’s the day before we fly, the washing is done and up to date, everything else is tidied and checked. We have to go to the van as I’d forgotten a couple of things, the van is in at AD Motors in Takanini getting a tuneup, new spark plugs, air filters and goodness knows what else. Great news, we can pick the van up in the morning and get it across Auckland to Peter & Wendy’s before we fly out tomorrow night. That is such a huge relief that we can get it parked up safely for the duration. Talk about cutting things fine.

The rest of the day is spent doing “life admin” and trying to relax, I don’t know why I get myself all in a tizzy but I do, the mind is racing trying to mentally tick off lists and make sure we have everything we need. We don’t take cabin baggage apart from Roy’s backpack which mainly has his computers, meds and a change of clothes, and I just have my trusty handbag of the backpack variety containing the essentials including ipad, headphones et al which stows comfortably under the seat. I get really annoyed with people who have multiple bags that they want to stow in the overhead lockers…why?

We both have medical notes that not only state the medications we are travelling with but also that Roy has a stent and I have hip and knee replacements that will undoubtably set off the airport security alarms.

Tuesday 14th May is departure day, but first it’s a trip across Auckland to deliver the van to Pete. So long as we are back early afternoon we have plenty of time to get to the airport. We pick up the van from AD Motors in Takanini where they go through everything they have done. We try not to faint at the bill, but they have done a brilliant job, the motor purrs quietly and efficiently and now sips away at fuel rather than guzzle!

Have we said before how eternally grateful we are to have such wonderful friends as Wendy & Peter whom allow us to park our RV up at their place where we know it will be safe and sound. We cannot thank them enough for their friendship and kindness shown to us, we are forever grateful.

With the van delivered and parked up safely we head back across the city to Antony’s where we grab a bite to eat for lunch before having a shower and getting changed. The bags are packed with their final ephemera, locked, cable tied, and ready to go. Ants returns from work, we pack the car and head to the airport where we arrive early but whats this? New layout at the airport to try and confuse us, but it is all well signposted, Antony drops us off, we bade farewell and join the long queue formed at checkin. Many thanks to Antony for putting us up or should that be putting up with us for the last week, it made the run up to us leaving very easy.

Our bags are weighed, and yes we are well under our 60kg limit, the bags are labelled with wheelchair tags and sent on their way along the travelator. Roy gets his wheelchair assistance where we are taken straight away to departures, jump all the queues at security and go through xray where yes, I am taken aside and scanned again, knees, hips and bra I tell them!

All done, we are then taken past all the Duty Free Shops, no thanks, we don’t want alcohol, perfume or tech gear nor designer clothes or handbags. We are then transferred to a motorised golf trolley to take us to our gate, just as well too as it was miles away!

We settled in the seats at the gate lounge, charged up our devices, then I cadged a ride on one of the golf trolleys back to where I could buy a bite to eat and a drink, then a ride back to Roy who was waiting patiently.

It wasn’t too long to wait when they called all those who had wheelchair assistance, we were first on the plane, and quickly settled into our seats.

Looking out the window to an Air NZ plane, farewell Auckland, see you in October.

We have reasonable seats at the back row of the first section, we have no one behind us, just the bulkhead. We end up having the row of three seats to ourselves. And being of the vertically challenged variety, I could comfortably lie down curled up across two seats with my feet against the wall and get a bit of quality sleep. Roy can quite happily nod off sitting up, and yes I did get him to try and lie down but he found it too uncomfortable!

There no if and buts about it, it’s a damn long flight and after nearly 18 hrs we landed in Dubai.

We are met and taken straight through immigration and customs and then directly to our connecting flight. We only have just under two hours from landing to take off so it’s actually quite tight. Off on the last leg to Gatwick and at just over 7 1/2 hrs it’s not long now until we are back in old blighty.

Welcome to Dubai the sign in the sand says according to Google translate.

A quick trip through immigration, again jumping all the queues because Roy is in a wheelchair, collect our bags but what is this? You need a pound coin to get a luggage trolley, fortunately I do have some English coins in my purse but come on Gatwick, how many people arriving from the other side of the world have UK coins on them? Very shortsighted I would have thought.

It’s an emotional welcome from Alex who is waiting for us in arrivals, then a 40min ride home for a welcome cup of tea.

Now let the adventures begin.

A busy last week

After all the excitement of the past week, Sunday I gave myself a well earned lie in before getting on with chores and shopping. But before that I must first say a huge thank you to Peter & Wendy who cooked us dinners and lunches over the past few days and generally made our lives so much easier whilst Roy was being sorted. We can’t thank you both enough for your hospitality, generosity and kindness, it is extremely humbling.

Monday, Roy had a visit to the ear clinic then Tuesday morning he was supposed to get grommets put in both ears. This will hopefully sort out the hassles he had on our last trip in 2022 which wasn’t resolved until we had returned. You can recap that adventure here. But in what seems to be the norm for us at the moment there was a change of plan. The specialist was unavailable so it was postponed until Wednesday, which meant we had a quick rethink and replan. Instead we decided to pack up and move over to Ardmore on the south side of Auckland for a night. We would be closer to the specialist, also around the corner from Antony and we could drop off our luggage, after packing it of course, and then deliver the van to the workshop on Wednesday afternoon.

We quickly packed up, said hooray to Peter & Wendy although we shall see them again when we deliver the van back in a few days, and headed off across Auckland.

Once at Ardmore we started packing our bags, there is so much to think about what to pack for five and a half months away. But we soon had most of it done and we delivered the bags to Antony’s.

Wednesday morning we were off again across the city to the ENT specialist. He was fitting Roy in between surgery and other appointments so we had a little wait. Roy was soon in the chair and discussing the options. Two different types of grommets (who knew) were finally decided upon, one type in one ear, the other in the other ear.

Then the other….you can see right through now 😜

We returned to Ardmore and packed up the last of the essentials plus we attended to the emptying out of the cupboards as well as the fridge and freezer. We delivered all of that to Antony’s then it was back to Ardmore to take the van to the mechanics workshop but not before emptying the waste tanks along the way.

With the van safely delivered we are now guests at Antony’s for the next few days, I’m sure he’s delighted! At least he gets his dinner cooked, his washing done and his house tidied. We are repacking the bags, taking out unnecessary items and trying to minimise what we take. Although one bag is full of goodies that have been requested for delivery so we shall have one empty bag soon after we arrive!!

The final countdown is on, as of now, just two more sleeps until we step on the plane. See you soon London and London family.

Albany and an oops!

We parked up at Peter & Wendy’s in Albany for a week which has been lovely, we had plenty to keep us busy and a few days after we arrived, P&W arrived back from their Easter break away.

Parked side by side before the great washing of vehicles took place.

Peter washed his vehicles after being near the sea to get all the salt and sand off, whilst the water blaster was out we also washed both of our vehicles, then we watched Pete expertly backed his RV into the barn. I don’t quite know how he does it as the van is tucked into one corner of the barn avoiding all the other vehicles and obstacles.

We are here for a few more days until we go housesitting, but first we have to take the van into RVRepairs for an insurance assessment, you see there was a little bit of an oopsie a few weeks ago when a guard rail at an unmanned fuel station leapt out and caught the side of the van.

The van will be going in to be repaired hopefully soon, another thing off our list of things to get done over the next few weeks.

Peter & Wendy have been extremely generous in allowing us to leave the van with them whilst we are away, it’s good to know it’s safe whilst we are away housesitting and later when we go to England.

We enjoyed our stay with them and especially the peace and quiet however we will still see them over the next few weeks as our housesitting stint is only 14minutes away and there is bound to be bits and pieces we have forgotten to pack.

Fridge woes

The van had been booked in at Kaitaia Tractors to get a change of transmission fluid. We had topped the fluid up ourselves whilst at Tauranga Bay but Garry pointed out that it probably needed a complete change. It’s handy having someone who knows about such things, he could tell by the smell of the fluid on the dipstick that it needed changing – who knew to take a sniff at the dipstick? Speaking of dipstick, the ones in the van are incredibly long…as in around 5 ft long!

We were due at the workshop first thing Monday morning so we headed into Kaitaia on Sunday to get a few chores done; laundry, shopping, dumping, getting fuel etc but we also has another pressing chore to attend to. The fridge wasn’t working, in fact it had well and truly died. How did we know for sure? From the very strong ammonia smell that happened on our way into Kaitaia. We knew straight away what was the problem so the fridge was immediately switched off and windows opened. We need to get it removed as soon as possible for safety reasons. But we have a freezer full of fish as well as other delights. What are we to do?

We were spending the night at the RSA and on booking in there and chatting with the bar staff, they very kindly offered to put out freezer contents into their large chiller. Brilliant, what a very kind offer. With that dilemma sorted, after delivering the van to the workshop on Monday morning we headed back into town to try and a) find someone to cap off the gas and remove the fridge b) find a replacement.

We knew we didn’t want another 3 way fridge, that is running off gas/12v/240v, we wanted a straight domestic 240v fridge. Initially we thought we also needed to have installed another solar panel dedicated to the fridge with its own battery, inverter and controller however that was proving impossible to find someone to do all of that. I made contact with Wayne Hunt from Motorhome Solar, as he did all our upgrades of our solar system a few years ago, yes he said, we can comfortably run an inverter compressor fridge on our system very easily, the brands to go for are Samsung or LG, he tells us. Great, now I know what to look for I can do some research. But what brilliant service from Wayne, his continued customer service is outstanding and we can highly recommend his company for good, honest, reliable service.

The other factor was the cost, approximately $3800 for a new 3 way fridge plus fitting including the services of a gas fitter versus $850 for a digital inverter fridge which we could fit ourselves (with help). A no brainer really. With the type of fridge sorted, the immediate priority was to find a gas fitter to remove the old fridge. Again, our fingers did the walking and we found a gas fitter in Kaitaia who could come first thing Tuesday morning and cap off the gas. Valentino from North Flow turned up as promised, on time, checked out our gas system, disconnected everything and then proceeded to get the fridge out of the van.

Valentino and Roy trying to remove the fridge.

Getting the old fridge onto the trailer, Valentino offered to take it to the rubbish tip for us, how kind is that?

With specifications in hand we let our fingers do the walking, actually we got Mr Google to help us to find the right fridge. We are limited on size of a new fridge as it has to fit in the recess we have, not such an easy task it seems as fridges are rather large these days. After an exhaustive afternoon spent googling, going to visit shops, suppliers and phoning all over Northland trying to find the right one, mostly being told that they are unavailable, or I have to wait 2-3 weeks, with one place telling me it was a 6 week wait, I finally found a very helpful man in Whangarei at Barrell’s 100% Extreme Store. He went out of his way to be helpful, checking on stock, checking other stores before going straight to the manufacturer. He could get one delivered to us by the end of the week, he told me, brilliant, he even gave a bit of a discount too.

We have to say that the people of Kaitaia were extremely helpful and friendly, from the many businesses we made enquiries with, to staff at the RSA, the café we frequented (Manaaki on 25), where the staff and food were fantastic, we cannot fault the locals from being exceptionally helpful and friendly.

Going without a fridge for a week is going to be a challenge, as well, we needed to keep those frozens frozen for a day or two. Next purchase, a chilly bin and salt ice. The bin was packed with the ice and the frozens carefully placed inside with the the lid closed and taped down, everything should remain frozen until out next destination.

We had a one night stop in Kerikeri before continuing on to Uretiti DOC camp where I knew that the managers Steve & Adrien would allow us to put our frozens into their freezer. We just had to wait a few days for the fridge to be delivered, and as promised I had a phone call to say they could deliver it to us on Saturday morning.

Fridge has arrived and is going well running off our solar array.

Sunday afternoon Garry arrived to help us with fitting the fridge into the recess. Some adjustments had to be made because the new fridge is taller than the old one, plus it has to be secured in place. Child proof locks were also purchased to secure the doors so they don’t accidentally swing open whilst we are on the move.

Oh look at all those wires. Remnants of the original American wiring plus new wiring. It was all tested, what could be removed was removed, the rest tidied up and carefully stashed. New wall linings were installed to complete the tidy up.

Of course it did not all go to plan, and new plans were constantly evolving. By the end of Monday we had the fridge in situ but not secured, as the final problem had to be overcome.

The fridge levelling feet at the front of the fridge were the problem and with no wriggle room left at the top we had to come up with another plan. The biggest issue was the left hand foot was under the base of the fridge but the right hand foot was under the hinge of the door, the door sits outside the cabinetry. After a good nights sleep with many ideas running through everyone’s heads, Garry came up with the perfect solution, we needed a piece of angle iron cut to length for the width of the fridge, this could be mounted flush with the base of the fridge with a long bolt threaded through the angle iron into position with locking nuts to effectively become the adjustable foot, as an added bonus it meant that the fridge would be bolted to the floor securely.

Looking through the vent hole and doorway, yes that is the fridge inside the door.

A trip into Whangarei was required where we found a very helpful engineering company who had exactly the angle iron that we wanted plus they cut it to length and rounded off the edges. Perfect. Bolts were sourced and purchased and back we went to Uretiti. Holes were drilled, I painted the angle iron with rust proofing paint and once the paint dried it was all put into place. However, one of the bolts for the feet was too short to go through all the wood, so I had to go back into Whangarei to buy one more bolt. I was back by 5:30pm, bolt put in, angle brackets had already been secured to the back of the fridge and side bracing put in. It was all done. Woop woop.

We can’t thank Garry enough for all his help and able assistance, and it’s been a bit of a mammoth task as of course not everything went to plan.

Getting there, the final adjustments being made, Garry on the floor and Roy holding the fridge in place.

Voilà, new fridge in situ, bolted down in every way possible.
The old fridge was probably only as tall as the underside of the energy rating sticker, I now have much more usable fridge & freezer space.

We’ve now had the fridge running for a week or more and energy wise it is very very efficient, we get down to anything between 85% to 87% full overnight so we are thrilled with its performance. It is certainly going to save us some LPG usage with it paying for itself over a very short period of time. As well, it has ice making capabilities which has a certain member of the touring party delighted, lots of ice for his rum!!

Time to move

Time to leave Uretiti and head south, not too far though, just to Ardmore on the southern side of Auckland as we have a few appointments and other things to do. We needed to get a COF sorted for the van as well as a COF for ourselves!!

We stay at Ardmore purely because it’s convenient, close to Antony, and close to our chosen garage etc if issues arise for the van. We had a lovely time getting things done and enjoying some catching up time with friends and family, time seems to slip away so quickly these days.

With trips out and about to get things done, train trips (see previous blog entry), visiting friends and family there is always plenty to do and to keep us busy. Fellow full-timers Carol & Glen came over to visit one day, it was lovely to catch up with them and all their news and we always manage a laugh or two.

We had to get a COF for the van and after a few days of sorting out bits and pieces it was all done.

Time to head off again, this time to friends Peter & Wendy for a couple of nights for a breather before we make our way to Shakespear for the summer. Peter was having some concreting done, which was fun watching all the activity of trucks coming and going.

Peter on his tractor moving a bit of metal in front of the barn.

Soon it was time to leave and head to Shakespear and set ourselves up for the summer.

The entrance way into the camp with the Pohutakawas putting on a great show this year

Visitors

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.

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.

Miso and peanut butter chickpea salad — 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.

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.

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.

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 😜.

What goes on in a black tank

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”?

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.

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.

Bad luck comes in threes

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!

More visitors but time to move on

Friends Colin & Ed came to stay for the weekend, it was such a relaxing, uneventful weekend that I forgot to take any photos. The talking was non stop, we ate well, we played Rummikub and we taught Edwina how to play 5 Crowns. She was hooked.

A few days later I received this image from Ed…

It’s lovely how you can just pick up with up good friends where you last left off as if you had only seen them yesterday. It was a lovely weekend all round.

Our last week housesitting passed very quickly, not much to do except remember to go and vote in the NZ General Election, a special vote for us as we are out of our electorate.

Jacky and Chris returned from their wonderful holiday and we stayed on for a couple of days before heading back to Auckland to collect the van. But first we paid a visit to fellow full timers John & Gaylene at their base in Ruawai. And this time I did take a couple of very unflattering photos (sorry, not sorry 😜).

We met these two many years ago when we shared fishing stories at a Matata, we were also very intrigued with the name on their bus “The Sad Bastard & his Mrs” and just had to meet the poor sad b….! However, John would have to be the very antithesis of anyone sad, we always have a good laugh with these two. And since then we’ve met up at various locations around the country and shared the odd tale or two.

It was soon time for us to head back to Auckland, sort out the van, that is, give it a good clean and tidy and get a few things done. The most immediate task was for me to get a medical so I can renew my drivers licence which a medical is required for a Heavy Traffic licence which I have along with my car licence. That’s now done and out of the way. But before that was done, we went to check on the newly installed toilet and the new floor, what’s this? A leak? Hmmm….back to the Repair shop where it was quickly sorted. Fortunately the repair shop is just 10 minutes away otherwise we may have been a bit cross!

We spent a few days enjoying Peter & Wendy’s company along with some other motorhoming friends of theirs Graeme & Yvonne. A few enjoyable happy hours were had, but then Graeme & Yvonne were off and the following day was time for us to leave as well. We cannot thank Peter & Wendy enough for allowing us to have the van at their place and for all their kindness, help and assistance given to us over the past few months. We really really appreciate it all. So much so, they are going to join us for the long weekend but more on that in the next post.

Up & down then repeat

Life seems to have settled into a semi routine of sorts. A few weeks ago on a Friday we headed down to Auckland for the day to pick up the van from RVRepairs and return it to its Albany park up. The resealing of all the joints had been done, the roof cleaned and the new toilet installed however a new problem had been highlighted. More on that later.

It was an early start to the day and we were back up at Whakapirau by mid afternoon. However, someone who shall remain nameless, took the house keys out of his pocket and left them in the van, so guess what? Another trip down to Auckland and back up again!! That was a very long day!

We watch the tides come in and out, fishermen come and go, all things to watch. We’ve had a few days where the day has started without a view, the fog descending to block all in front of us, but it’s usually cleared by mid morning to leave us with a beautiful day.

Another trip to Auckland, we are giving Antony a hand with a few things around his house before we again deliver the van to RVRepairs to do the last job that they didn’t have time to do on its last visit. A very busy weekend was spent with Antony before we were off to pick up the van on Sunday afternoon then deliver it into the workshop. Roy spend the night in the van whilst I headed back across the city to spend the night with Antony. Early Monday morning it was back across to pick up Roy and head back to Whakapirau doing the grocery shopping along the way.

We had been told that the van could be a week or more, depending on what they find. What was the issue? When putting in the new toilet it was discovered there had been a bit of a leak around the base which had made the floor rotten in places around the toilet. How big was the problem was anyones guess, it could be a major job or just a small replace and repair around the toilet. There was also another potential problem noticed with the black tank but that issue will be fully explained in a separate blog post at a later date. Fortunately the floor wasn’t such a big job and on Wednesday morning we were back in the car heading to Auckland to pick up the van and return it to its parking spot at Peter & Wendy’s.

A great job well done by Peter and his crew at RVRepairs, very neat and tidy. Luckily I had a spare length of vinyl that we used in the base of the pass through locker at the rear of the RV which they could use to replace the flooring in the toilet, so it matches perfectly and you would never know anything had been done. Apart from the fact that the floor is now solid and we have a shiny new porcelain loo.

Another successful journey to Auckland and back, I think you can be assured that I know the return journey rather well by now. Our next trip down to Auckland will be to return to pick up the van and resume our adventures.