water – The Vanninis' Manoeuvres

Cyclone Gabrielle

We have had lots of messages and phone calls from friends and family checking to see if we were ok which has been really lovely and we do appreciate the calls and messages. We are just fine and have come through it all without any issues. But who else jumps out of their skin when that awful, blaring, warning siren suddenly goes off on your phone with a Civil Defence alert? It certainly gives me a wake up!

We had been warned of the path of Cyclone Gabrielle and the projected rainfall and winds we could expect so we were well informed and prepared. We tend to watch the weather patterns and forecasts probably a little more closely than most folks and take appropriate precautions to keep ourselves safe. With the next storm warning issued, we made sure that if we have to move from our current parking spot we can a) make the move quickly and b) know where to move to.

After the last storm we are still parked on hard ground (a concrete pad) on the highest point on the camp and have taken on advise from those in the know that we are in a safe place. We checked the topography, geography, and the direction of projected winds. We also formulated plan B, C and D should the need arise.

Sunday 12th February, we had a bit of a break in the weather early in the day so headed out in the car with the portable waste tank to empty, we then topped up with fresh water, checked supplies and hunkered down for however long it may be. Mind you, I bet we looked like right Wally’s as we were walking around and around the van with compasses in hand figuring out if we were parked in the right position to be head on into the wind so as not get buffeted around too much. So far so good. But we know that the worst is yet to come.

The view out of the back window before the wind really started!!!

We also waited and waited to see if Alex & co would be able to fly out of Auckland to Christchurch early afternoon after spending a few days around Tauranga and Rotorua. After a few delays they finally got away and we were relieved to hear from them when they landed safely in Christchurch. Shortly afterwards we heard that they closed Auckland Airport for all domestic flights then subsequently International flights.

Monday 13th. We were buffeted quite a bit by the winds last night and I have to admit not much sleep was had. Before darkness fell we walked around and made sure everything was either stowed away or lashed down and we could move if we needed to quickly. Should we reposition the van to be head on into the wind? After much discussion we decided to stay where we were even though we knew that we would be slightly side on into the winds for the first part of the night but then the wind direction was due to change and we would be head on into the wind. And indeed that is what exactly happened and it was much more comfortable without the rocking and rolling. However we woke to find that our hot water wasn’t working, we trust that it is due to the fact that the gas water heater is on the side of the van that is facing directly into the wind and rain. Fortunately we can make use of a hot shower on site so we won’t be too smelly!! But we do have to get through the flooded road out of the camp.

Top: Roy testing the depth of the water before
Bottom: Bruce came along to lead us through

Tuesday 14th. We now wait for the full impact of Gabrielle to bring more rain and wind over the next 24 hours. The news around the country is not great with major slips and flooding everywhere. We woke to find that although we had lots of rain, we did not get the intense flooding we had a few weeks ago. Yes, we still have flooding but it has been the ferocity of the winds that has been the real issue with giant swells and rough seas carving away at the beach and sand dunes, as well as bringing down trees and branches everywhere. We can now hardly see out of any of the windows due to the salt spray. Once the worst is past we shall have to wash the van.

Debris covered beach

Wednesday 15th. The worst is over, hopefully the winds will die down shortly and we can take stock. We have come through all this very very well and we thank our lucky stars that we have no damage, we are warm and dry, we can get on and do things. The park has been closed since Monday so everything can be assessed with access, tracks, trees and livestock to be checked as well as the flooding everywhere.

We washed the van of all the salt that had been deposited by the strong winds, what a difference, we can see out of the windows now, the salt was so thick on the windows that it looked like we were in the midst of a great fog!!

We then ventured out to the dump station and the laundromat to get all the washing done, two necessary jobs that can be done just 5 minutes from the park. On our return we tried the hot water again to see if we could get it to work, lo and behold, it works!! Amazing what no rain and less wind will do.

Later, we had another job to do, put up tape on now dangerous access points to the beach which have been seriously eroded and undercut by the seas. Roy had checked out all the usual access points on his walk along the beach earlier in the day and he offered to put up the warning tape, to remove one more job that the already very busy Rangers had to do.

Eroded beach front access and undercut sandbanks.

Wednesday evening, and the wind has dissipated to a slight breeze. It is so quiet without the roar of the winds, the crashing seas and the sound of branches breaking and trees creaking & groaning in the wind.

Our hearts go out to all those people and communities who have lost loved ones, homes, possessions, access to power, communications and roading. I don’t know how they cope with the devastation both physically and emotionally. This storm has been unprecedented and will have a lasting affect on us all. Stay safe everyone, and look out for each other.

Water water everywhere

Wednesday 1 February 2023….woke this morning to find the van surrounded by water, not just ponding water but a raging torrent of water, the whole campground was under water. I shall let the pictures tell the story….

An hour later and the water is starting to go down

The shower tent thinks it’s now a bath! And the garden is getting well watered

The creek overflowed a little….just as well we cleared out both ends of the culvert yesterday

Looking toward the back of the camp with the gate through to Pink Beach

The road out of the camp looking toward the main gate

Before and during…now already just 4hours later it’s back to the before picture.

Now safely parked on solid high ground. Although I have to admit that we did need some assistance in getting out, one rear wheel could not gain any traction even after I put the rubber mats by the tyres. I didn’t take any pictures of the tractor pulling us out,in fact I didn’t even watch!!

And now, just 8 hours after being woken to floods we have brilliant sunshine and blue skies.

Parked in our new safe spot, with our usual place in the background on the right.

Long may the blue skies remain, we need a break. However, we got off lightly, the shower tent and pump is damaged beyond repair and I lost a Croc (shoe) but that is all. We are safe and dry as is our home, we are very lucky. Our thoughts are with all those people who have damaged homes and livelihoods, some have lost everything including loved ones, our heart goes out to them all and we wish everyone all the best.

A state of emergency

Real time update:

Many of you will have heard or read in he news about the State of Emergency that was declared in Auckland overnight, Friday 27th January, with the heavy and relentless downpours and strong winds. You will be pleased to hear that we fared very well, although the same cannot be said for other campers. Most left or did not come on Thursday and Friday before the rain started, we had had plenty of warning form the weather office so we were somewhat prepared.

However, we were not prepared for the amount of rain we had, it just kept on coming. Most campers abandoned wet tents and went home but there were the odd few who stayed on.

Roy and I spent most of Friday keeping everyone updated with reports, and helping people when they needed assistance. Of course that meant getting very, very wet, raincoats just didn’t cut it, we got soaked through our coats and ended up changing clothes three times before we figured we should just put the wet clothes back on to go outside.

This is the view to the back of our site, the top picture is the creek overflowing it’s banks and rising quickly, it got much higher than this, but this morning it looked like to bottom picture. At the base of the bottom picture you can see a couple of stakes, the first one nearest the fence line is where the water came up to, the second stake was our ‘let’s watch carefully’ indicator, and then there was a third stake closer to the van which was the ‘let’s get out of here quick’ sign.

Water started pooling quickly, and people decided to either move or leave.

Lakeside view. The tents you can see in the background were abandoned and left to fill with water.

I couldn’t take too many photos as my hands and phone became too wet, besides we were busy helping people.

We helped a lady in her pop top caravan out of the raging torrent that was the creek which couldn’t be contained in the underground culvert with the water heading overland instead. We pushed her wee caravan to safety out of the water which I must say was a rather nerve wracking affair as the water was knee deep and a very strong current, fortunately a strapping young man came to assist. Another caravan owner returned to find their caravan surrounded by a strong torrent of water, they got to move it just in time before any damage was done. By this time it was dusk and the rain had finally stopped. Our water level markers were telling us the water levels were dropping, so we could comfortably go to sleep.

This was the creek after it had become a torrent overland, at this stage it was the next morning when I took the picture and it had receded by at least 50%.

These hardy campers stayed on the higher ground. We moved our vehicle out ready for a quick getaway if we needed to.

The creek which is usually nothing more than a trickle, blew out a new exit to cope with the copious amount of water.

Saturday dawned with heavy rain falling again but by mid morning it had stopped, the clouds made way for blue skies and the sun shone. Campers returned to collect their sodden tents, the other campers slowly packed up allowing tents to dry in the lovely sunshine. By late afternoon we were all alone in camp.

We feel very fortunate that we were safe during the rain event, our hearts go out to all those people who have been flooded, lost their homes, cars and possessions and some people have lost their lives. Stay safe everyone, take heed of the forecasts and warnings with none of that “she’ll be right” attitude.

The forecast isn’t looking great for the next few days but we have our fingers crossed it will all be over mid week and the sun will shine for our UK family to arrive next weekend. Stay safe everyone.

Lockdown in Feilding

Continued on from Wellington – Waikanae post…

We left Waikanae on our journey northwards with a brief stop in Foxton to fill up with LPG at the excellent Mobil garage which has brilliant access for large vehicles as well as auto LPG filling facilities, before continuing on to Feilding, our stopover for a couple of days.

We were soon parked overlooking the sports grounds at Timona Park where we will stay for a couple of days as the weather turned nasty again so we hunkered down to wait it out.

The trip to date from Koromiko to Feilding

Of course those plans were scuppered as we were surprised by a case of the Delta variant of Covid in the community. Well, not really surprised, as it had to happen at some stage, but we certainly weren’t expecting it to happen now. As was expected, a quick change of levels to full lockdown effective from 2359hrs Tuesday 17 August. Auckland and Coromandel regions were in for a 7 day lockdown with the rest of the country 3 days, however, we realised straight away that this would change as things developed.

We contemplated for a moment whether we should make a run for somewhere else as we had 48hrs in which to get “home” but we quickly made the decision to remain where we are as being in small town NZ away from masses of people is probably the best and safest place to be. So here we are, parked in a designated camping area in front of 12 football fields and 4 rugby fields.

As an aside, I wondered why Feilding is spelt with the e before i variant rather than following the i before e ‘rule’. It is because the town is named after Colonel William Feilding who settled the area in the 1870s. The town is a service centre for the surrounding farming district and with its wide main streets and Edwardian buildings it is a rather attractive town.

Back in our bubble of two, the Police constantly patrol through the park reminding lots of people who drive here for whatever reason about the rules. It is very reassuring to see the Police so visible in the community and people seem to happily comply. We just have to wait and see how long this lockdown will last as we are not expecting it to be a quick fix. This then changed to a two week full on lockdown for us with reviews each week.

We just have to look across the Tasman to Australia and to our Pacific neighbours in Fiji to see what a devastating effect the lack of lockdowns can have on the population.

We are staying at home as much as possible although I did venture out to the supermarket to restock the fresh fruit and veg, and there was also a trip to the laundromat, all undertaken with mask, sanitiser and contact tracing with Bluetooth turned on.

The weather has been a good mix of typical spring-like days, rain and wind then a few days of glorious sunshine, followed by a few days of gloomy, grey cloudy days, however the sunsets have been spectacular

There is a dump station and water available here at the park just around the exit road. When trying to load up with water one day, an entitled, rude local came and yelled at me for being “out during Covid”…this is whilst they had driven to the park to walk their fluffy handbag dogs and parked directly blocking access to anyone getting in to the dump station and right next to the no parking sign.

There is no reasoning with some people, and it’s difficult to argue with ignorance so it’s best to just walk away and leave them to argue with themselves.

In speaking with lots of friends around the country we have all come to the conclusion that this lockdown has been very different and at times difficult for most people. We are not sure why, perhaps because we have been without constant lockdowns we are not used to life this way? Have we become complacent? Tolerance levels seems to be very short, people seem to be less likely to call out a cheery “hi” as they walk past, people appear to be less “kind”. There have been a couple, of other motorhomes parked in the park area here, and although we’ve tried to engage with people by calling out a cheery hello, how are you?, most people have disengaged. We are not alone in thinking this, one neighbour, a woman travelling on her own, has also said she has found this lockdown particularly difficult as people have not wanted to engage…even from a safe distance and masked….she said she had found it very lonely this time. In fact she said we were the only ones to talk to her apart from one person who said hello to her as they walked past the other day. How sad is that?

Update: We drop to Level 2+ Wednesday 8 September and we can get underway again as we have things to do and people to see.

Be safe out there folks.

Lowburn-Queenstown-Luggate

We parked at Lowburn for a few days whilst we took in the surrounding district and scenery.

The view from the front window, with the fog visible at the south arm of Lake Dunstan

It got cold, very cold. One day the temperature outside rose to zero by mid afternoon before plunging into minus figures again.

Ok, I admit it, I’ve gone a bit soft in my maturing years. The cold weather shouldn’t really be an issue for me, I was born during the cold winter months in Yorkshire, and spent my youth in the centre of the North Island where on the way to school we would race to be the first to break the ice in the puddles along the way, we’ve lived in the Deep South as well. But some of us are slow learners, I mean it’s taken me all these years to figure out how to make our bed warmer…..get your minds out of the gutter people, it’s not what you are thinking. We don’t like electric blankets, nor those fluffy sheets much preferring crisp cotton sheets so we do make it difficult for ourselves. However, we have to backtrack slightly, it all goes back to when we were emptying out our container of all our worldly possessions where amongst some of the many items that I came across were wool blankets that I had carefully packed away. Well, after donating some of the blankets, I decided to keep a couple for myself as I thought I would repurpose them and had a few ideas fermenting away. But back to the story. Usually in the wintertime, I put the quilt that Ann made for us over the top of our duvet, but this time I decided to put one of the blankets on our bed between the top sheet and the feather & down quilt, this was partly necessitated by the struggle to find storage space for the said blankets. Well, what a revelation, after all these years of adding the quilt over the top of the duvet, a good old fashioned wool blanket is so much warmer! Those blankets may well be repurposed as…..blankets!!! Lesson learnt.

Back to venturing.

We visited Neil, Jodie and their baby William in Luggate one afternoon. Neil & Antony were at University together, as well as flatmates at different stages in their lives and they have also travelled together, they are best mates. It was great to catch up with Jodie & Neil in their new home, it was whilst we were there that Jodie came up with the idea to get Antony down for the weekend. Arrangements were quickly made, flights booked, we would pick him up from Queenstown airport in a couple of days time as it would work in with our plans to visit some of Roy’s clients at the airport and Jodie would deliver him back to the airport on Monday morning.

Friday afternoon we headed off into Queenstown, we left Cromwell in the fog but arrived in Queenstown to glorious sunshine with fresh snow sprinkling the mountains.

Visits completed, we had a bit of time to kill before Antony’s flight landed. His flight was delayed by the fireworks being let off in Queenstown for the start of the winter festival, apparently they had to circle around for a while before getting the all clear to land. He was duly collected and we headed back to Luggate.

After a lovely weekend spent with Antony & co. but it was time for us to move on as we have people to see and places to be.

But before we leave, a few more pictures to share.

To finish though, a cheeky little picture of Callum getting ready to watch the football wearing his England supporters shirt.

Fridge woes

It was blowing a gale, with horrendous horizontal rain….halfway through the day I could hear that the fridge was click click clicking away as though it was trying to ignite without success however all lights showing on the face of the fridge said that it was still going ok. In a brief respite from the weather we checked the back of the fridge (accessed from the outside) and it seemed that the flame was going ok but the starter thingy whatsit (that is it’s correct techie name) just kept on going and wasn’t detecting that the flame was actually present.

The outside vent and access to the rear of the fridge

Our fridge is a three way fridge, gas, 240v power or 12v, however we have had the 12v capability removed as it uses far too much power and would kill our batteries, therefore the fridge will only go on gas or 240v power. And as we very rarely, if ever, plug into power, it runs mainly on LPG gas. We presumed that the clicking noise something to do with the fact that the wind was directly blowing into the vent and rain was coming in horizontally on that side of the bus, possibly extinguishing the flame.

Fast forward to the following day which dawned bright, clear, sunny and no wind, however we discovered that the locker under the fridge vent was water logged so the rain was really coming in that direction with great force. Roy tried all the usual things to try and fix the fridge, he cleaned everything, blasted it with compressed air etc etc, until he determined that the control box starter thingy (another techie name) was faulty. He was sure he actually had a spare one but couldn’t remember where he had put it…..so, all the lockers got emptied, boxes opened and searched, he went through everything and couldn’t find it so he presumed he had carefully filed it at Antony’s for safe keeping.

Meanwhile we switched the fridge over to power and thought we would run it off the inverter and batteries during the day. We were already at 100% full by the time we thought of that option and with the inverter on, the control said we were consistently putting in 1 or 2 amps all day which made us think perhaps it wasn’t working properly on power.

Fast forward again to the afternoon, Roy went off for a nana nap, I decided to dry out and clean out the locker that had got wet which contains lots of containers with all those handy things like nuts, bolts, screws, fuses, wires, electrical connectors, and lots and lots of essential tools and bits, all neatly stacked in labelled containers. In tidying everything up before putting it all back neatly…..I opened one of the “miscellaneous” boxes and guess what I found? Yep, the little green box thingy all carefully wrapped up in bubble wrap!!! Once Roy woke up, he replaced the starter in the fridge workings and off it went perfectly on gas. Phew!

But just to check, that evening we switched the inverter on, set the fridge over to 240v power and guess what? It uses around 27amps….amazing, so the system works really well during sunny days that means our power system is well setup and works extremely well.

We figure that for over the summer months, we shall run the fridge on power during the day and gas overnight, and see how it goes especially whilst we are at Shakespear, hopefully it will reduce our gas consumption considerably.

The fridge workings exposed, with new drainage hose attached and new ignitor in place

PS to the tale of the fridge, we thought initially that the wet locker was from the rain, but no, on inspection the drain hose at the back of the fridge to the outside (that white crinkly concertina pipe stuff) had completely broken down and shattered into tiny pieces with the water now dripping down into the locker below.

Some years ago we had replaced large section of the hose but the last remaining 6inches of pipe at the fridge end had deteriorated so we needed another hose to connect directly with the fridge outlet. The replacement piece we had on there just wasn’t doing it as it was very stiff and I couldn’t bend it enough to directly connect it to the back of the fridge. You must realise that I am trying to do this from the outside (the back of the fridge) through a narrow gap which can only be reached if I stand on a step, angle myself into all sorts of twisted positions to feel my way past all the other pipes and wires…..so, thinking cap on. What can we use for a better drain pipe of the correct dimensions…..light bulb moment, the clear flexible hose from one of the solar showers fitted perfectly and was pliable enough to squeeze directly onto the outlet pipe at the back of the fridge. Voila, it works perfectly.

The woes of RV fridges!!!

The R&M continues

I’m in catch up mode, being a couple of weeks or more behind in blogging, somehow life gets a little busy or maybe I’m just easily distracted?

In between fishing escapades whilst at Uretiti, and with the weather showing its ugly side, we discovered we had a bit of a leak. That will teach us to be oh so cocky after having the roof cleaned, obviously they cleaned it too well with some of the sealant around vents and the like parting ways with the roof. The leak was a drip drip drip right over the end of our bed. And of course there is not much you can do about it when it is actually raining.

With a bit of a break in the weather, it was time to investigate the roof. The ingress of the water wasn’t apparent, nor was it evident immediately above where it was making its way inside. As water tends to travel in not so obvious routes, finding the entry point was proving difficult.

Roy went up to investigate and Keith kindly offered to supervise the pensioner on the roof!

Think we’ve found it! Even though the drip inside is on the other side of the van

We think they fixed the leak, we just have to wait for the next lot of rain to test out the hypothesis, which wasn’t too far away by the look of those dark clouds rolling in.

It did still leak a little, but just a drop or two which could well be residual moisture being pushed though by pressure….well, that’s the theory at this stage.

After a few more tweaks we think it is all solved with the magic tape that Keith had on hand for such just eventualities.

We left Uretiti on the Sunday as it was a good window of fine weather as the forecast was not looking very good for the next couple of days with heavy winds and rain expected. We thought we would head up to Kerikeri for a few days and sit out the storm there.

We arrived in clear skies but the following couple of days we were subject to a bit of wild weather. Although we didn’t get the 100km/hr winds they were experiencing back at Uretiti, we still got the rain. And very heavy rain at that. OMG what is this? The drip has moved, it is now in the toilet area coming through the light fitting. Again, not much we can do in this weather, we just have to wait it out.

A break in the weather again, everything inspected and checked, nope, can’t see where it’s coming in at all. Theories were put forward, tested, refuted and more theories put forward. What’s this? Raining again? Guess what? No leaks. Fingers crossed it’s all sorted.

Now let’s get back to the fishing.

Always take the weather with you

How do you know that the Vannini’s are back at Shakespear? Look at the weather!

Our view went from this

To this

It seems as though we bring extreme weather events with us to Shakespear having been here before when the rainfall has been excessive. This time the planned public planting day had to be cancelled for the first time ever. The planting of trees was to have taken place on Sunday, in fact the area chosen to be planted was around a major slip that occurred last year to stabilise the hillside. That slip took place when we were again parked in the Motorhome parking area last year which you can read about here

Never mind, it all passed pretty quickly and we were safe and dry inside the van.

We did manage to catch up with a few of the Rangers whilst we were here as well as friends whom we have met here. We visited Skip & Mindy for a very pleasant day catching up on news and travels. And we hope we have managed to assist their daughter to convince them to head off on holiday to Europe with her later this year.

and this was our view on the way out today

Straight to the pool room

For some time now I have joked with the Rangers here at Shakespear that I was going to get myself a pool, install it at the back of our van in our private bay in the park. Just something smallish, nothing too elaborate so that when I come back from swimming at the beach, I can then chill out in freshwater! Well, no more joking. Today, Santa came early and delivered a nice pool……well, OK, I went to the shop and bought it myself.

Laying it out ready to fill.

First we had to blow up the outer rim of the pool, to do this we used our small compressor which is charged from the car battery, of course we had left our other compressor that we use to inflate the air bed at Antony’s place. It was taking ages to fill and the compressor was getting rather hot, so I resorted to giving it mouth to mouth!

Time to fill with water
This necessitated running a hose from the tap, actually we had to join a number of hoses together to reach, then it was the long wait to fill. The pool is 10ft diameter and 30inches deep…3.05m by 760cm for those of you who work in metres, it took a while to fill.

Nearly there.

The pool came complete with filtration system and pump so it should be good for the summer.

And to make sure it is safe, we also have a cover and as well we have put up our wind breaks at either end of the van so that it is not visible to curious youngsters! Besides, it really is a reservoir for emergency purposes isn’t it?

Visitors

We first met Chris & Amanda back in November 2011 when we were in Oamaru, then we kept running into them at various points along the road including in New Plymouth in November 2012. So when they contacted us to say that they were heading north for a break we took the opportunity to arrange to meet up. As they have an Ultima 5th wheeler, they also knew Pat & Sue, having met up with them when they had an Ultima before they saw the light and crossed over to join those of us with a Mirada!!!! Pat & Sue were still in Kopu with the van having work done on it, however they managed to pry themselves away and came up to join us and the girls for dinner. A good evening was had by all before Pat & Sue headed off back to Kopu leaving us to enjoy the quiet of Waharau.

Chris & Amanda had been having a few problems with their water pump which had just been fixed the day before. They had run low on water but as we had been collecting a bit of rainwater, we offered them a bit of a top up of their tank with lovely clean rainwater.

Chris pouring with Amanda holding the funnel. It was suggested that it looked as though they could have been filling the tank with moonshine gin or vodka!!!! Now there’s an idea!

We played tour guides showing Chris and Amanda the highlights of the area as we all sharing meals and playing lots of cards. They were due to head off Saturday morning so we convinced them to come with us into Thames where, along with Pat & Sue, we wandered through the Market in town adding to the local economy, as well as having a lovely coffee and bite to eat at Cafe Melbourne. The girls headed off to their next stop, Pat & Sue returned to their van at the workshop and we returned to our van.

Another day and Bill & Estelle came to visit, we had promised them that as the tides were right, we would put out the flounder net if they could wait around for late afternoon to help bring in the spoils. Of course the best laid plans were swept out to sea as when we hauled in the net it was devoid of any fish. Typical. We blamed the lack of fish on putting the net in a new location where it was untested, that will teach us, back to where we know the fish are biting.