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| A small "walk" with Joan |
We flew into Christchurch via Auckland from Perth. Had time for a quick catchup & coffee with Wayne & Kate, before rushing through security for our flight to Christchurch. Only to find our flight cancelled and a new flight later in the day. It was a long day.
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| A chilly morning in Christchurch |
Arrived in Christchurch and taxied out to Weddons, where the bus had been in storage for nearly 4 months while we were in Australia. All was good, and the bus started easily. The new Penny automated system worked well to let us drive out of the storage compound and into the NZMCA Campground to park up. We got our bikes sorted and rode into Rolleston for groceries, forgetting how early it got dark, and no lights on our bikes! It was an early night after two full on days of travel and a bowl of soup.
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| New Brighton |
We had three nights in Christchurch for Bill to have a scan, more tests and met the Surgeon to have his prostate removed. We were privately funding the operation as robotics wasn't publicly funded at this time. And after all our research and meetings with specialists in Aussie, we felt this was the best way to go for Bill. We were fortunate there was a bus stop at the gate of our camp and for $4 we could travel into town before 9am / free after 9am on our Gold Cards to return home. No parking hassles. It was a bit dark when heading into town and a bit cool one morning at -2 degrees (a bit of ice on the inside of our motorhome windows). We had time to catch up with Marg for brunch one morning and Helen & Ralph for lunch another day. A bus ride out to New Brighton and check the changes going on there and back into town around the medical appointments. Checked out the lovely new library a couple of times (greeted by R&P's son Adam one morning and renewed our friendship from years ago).
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The Christchurch Cathedral still struggling
with it's rebuilds |
After meeting the Surgeon and going over all Bill's results, he made a date to have the surgery in a few weeks. Uggh! It will be good to have it all done and out.
We left Christchurch the next morning and headed straight to Marfell's Beach (a favourite DOC camp for us.) We were traveling home without a COF or Rego (can't get this without the COF) as we thought we would do all this back home in Nelson, so wanted to get off the road as soon as possible. The next morning after a beach walk, we headed over the hills back to Nelson and back home to 177 after 11 years of renting it out. We had had good management of the property over ten years. Unfortunately, we changed companies for the last one. They got lovely tenants but didn't manage the cleaning very well. Amazing how quickly a place can deteriorate in 9 months! Being winter isn't a great time to return home anyway, but the house looked very shabby. The doors and walls were sticky. The windows shocking. Can't believe the Property Manager signed the place off. And as it was a couple of weeks after the tenancy termination, we couldn't do anything about it. I was so upset, we didn't move back in for a few days, staying in the Bus till we could get some cleaning done. Very grateful to V&T for dinner that night. Stopped me crying. But we were lucky to have been away 11 years with very few issues over that time.
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| Marfells Beach 😍 |
When I had previously connected with Power companies (like Tosswill Road after 6 years of not connecting to any power provider), it wasn't an issue. But this time as they had actually disconnected the service to the property, what a shemozzle to reconnect. Very hard to get a person on the end of a phone call these days. Thankfully, we were still in the Bus so not too much of a disaster. More frustrating. And with all the providers these days, who is best to join up with. Genesis won. And so far, have provided good service, especially their power shouts.
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| Restructuring for a new TV! |
Tyler was home next door for the Uni holidays. What a great opportunity for us to have a strong young man next door.😊 Bill & Tyler were able to move all the heavy furniture back into the house from the sleepout / storage room pretty smoothly. In the 11 years we had been away, technology had moved along quite a lot. Our 17 year old TV really was past it's keep date. Surprisingly, considering we aren't big TV watchers, Bill was on a mission to replace it pretty quick. This involved a day of altering the wall unit and reassembling it to be able to take the bigger screen. After a hiccup in misunderstanding what was out there for sale and at what price, Bill finally got it sorted and rushed out to the Warehouse for a bargain! I must say it has been good and is great for playing music from the many streaming services that are out there, without actually signing up for any subscription. And more surprising was we were able to sell the old one along with the cromecast and freeview dish for $50. Much better than going to landfill.
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| Another slip 😕 |
The weather was great initially on our arrival home, but heavy rain was forecast. Bill checked all our guttering and drains in preparation. And then the rain commenced. That was ok as the tenants had left us some firewood, and it was a good time to finish cleaning and moving everything back into its right place. Or send down the hill to Restore if no longer required. Unfortunately, it was pretty consistent heavy rain and by day 3 of no letting up, our neighbours property had a slip come down on our driveway, blocking it. It was too wet to do anything about it till the rain stopped, not knowing it would take two months before we could clear it.
When we headed down to Christchurch for Bill's operation, we decided to have a night in Hanmer Springs as it was a last chance for a swim before his op. Out of the blue, we got a phone call from Flora & Bjorn whose kids had seen us walking around the streets of Hanmer. They had amazing recollection of us, which was lovely when we met for a coffee at their Bus (home) the next morning. They went on the road three years after us with their four children and still loving it.
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| My Rose Gold bike. |
Onto Christchurch that morning to H&R's. We checked out a bike sale at 99 Bikes as I wanted a new bike after my lovely Aussie one. They had my Aussie one except for the colour. Only $1400NZD, the Aussie one was $2200 NZD. Bargain, except for the rose gold colour. But if it saved over $700, I don't care that much about colour. The next day was my birthday - after a morning shopping, checking out lounge suites among other items, we headed back to H&R's to walk to Arlo's up the hill for my birthday lunch. Very nice.
The next morning, 6.30am, I took Bill in for his Op. After he was checked in and I gave him a kiss (just in case it was to be his last), I headed out for breakfast, then caught the bus to the Palms for a bit of shopping waiting to hear from the Surgeon. All went well. I caught the bus back to hospital just as Bill was coming out of recovery. He seemed pretty good and the Surgeon was happy how it all went (which is what you want to hear). I picked him up mid-morning the next day, after going through all his post op care with the nurses. As Bill was feeling so comfortable, we went shopping, well may as well .... poor Bill. He was very good as I drove around looking at curtains / vacum cleaners /rangehoods / lunch at Scarborough.
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| Morning walk with Helen & Ralph |
We even picked up my new bike. Bill managed a good night's sleep. Only up the once. We stayed on in Chch an extra two nights for recovery after a mate had said how uncomfortable the journey home had been for him straight after surgery. We had a big walk the next day up the hill. Bill was amazing, coping very well with catheter and pain. We drove through the Lewis Pass home, beautiful drive through, no comments from any backseat driver. Much nicer coming into the house this time. It was feeling more like home.
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| Bill recovering with a cup of tea & sandwhich |
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| Dennis removing loading spoil onto the truck |
Bill needed to buy another Ute (workhorse), as Ute's are much more versatile on a hillside property. We were able to start to clear bits in the driveway, but it was too sodden to do too much around the slip. Another claim went into NHC (replacement for EQC) but that's like getting water out of a rock to meet their criteria for compensation. Dealing with your driveway but not your land that has come down onto it, is quite complex. Once the ground dried out enough to be moved, almost two months later, Bill & Dennis spent a day clearing the slip. Dennis on the digger, Bill taking 11 loads of waste to a dumpsite. Although now cleared, there is no remedy to stop future slips, so this will be an ongoing issue with our heavier rainfalls unfortunately. I know, I know Bill! We live on a sea cliff!!!! Anyway, that is a discussion five years away. Watch this space.
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| Our new workhorse |
Along with settling back into the house, sorting the overgrown gardens, we are back to weekly visits to Joan (who hadn't noticed we had been away), occasional cards at Bobs (along with Diana when she was available) on wet days, a memorial for Richard Cowan (an ex kayaker) which was a good get-together with fellow kayak members we hadn't seen for a few years, and local walks & bike rides. Catch up with friends and what they've been up to while we have been away. We are enjoying being back in Nelson, especially now we have retired.
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| Upgrading the kitchen wall for a new rangehood |
We caught up with an ex Nelsonian / Kayaker Ray while he was passing through town (thanks Bob for keeping people connected). Ray & Katie now live just out of Melbourne in Mansfield, so we will put them on the list to visit when we head over next February for Michael & Alex's wedding.
We started to plan what we wanted to do in the way of renovations and the priority of jobs. We followed up a two-year-old quote on double glazing the whole house and amazingly the price had only increased by $300! Wow! We will take that, but not until next year after our summer trip to Aussie. Booked it in. The decking around the house was priority with summer around the corner and most of the Family and extended Family all coming for Christmas. Huge job for Bill removing all the 40-year-old plus timbers and prepping for the new decking. Just as well he had good recovery from his operation as there was a lot of squatting and scrunching in replacing the deck.
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| Bill into the deck replacement |
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| A new pruning tool |
Bill replaced the broken range hood in the kitchen, which allowed me the opportunity to repaint the dark red end of the kitchen (very fashionable 25 years ago!). We replaced the curtains in our bedroom, which also helped to make it feel fresher and more modern. Along with these jobs we worked away on the gardens, recovering our view and restoring areas that had got a little overgrown.
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| Our lovely newly covered bus seats |
Bill also worked away on his new (old) Ute which had a few small issues that he wanted fixed. Like getting the seat welded after breaking away from its frame! Replacing the radio head with a $33 Ali Express bargain - Bill was very BVD (a rating system of Bill's - Bill very disappointed). We also got on and replaced the fabric on the front seats of the Bus that had deteriorated and was disintegrating as we sat on them. Who knew there was a lot of science that went into upholstery fabrics along with the dollars to buy it. Then there is the poor guy that does the job. The seats are not easy to work on even when they were taken out of the bus. So, for $4k, we now have very smart seats. Also at this time, Bill decided to replace the Suzuki's head unit with one that would include a backing camera. It's ok for the majority of people's vehicles that commonly come with cameras these days, but our nearly 20-year-old car missed the boat on this device. We can boast we have one now too.
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| Elaine & I at the Nelson Car Museum |
Mark & Elaine decided it was time to do a much-needed South Island trip, leaving Auckland and come and stay with us in Nelson for a part of it. It was lovely to see them and get out and about around Nelson and play tourists along with them. Nelson put on great weather while they were here which certainly helped.
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| Dethatching the lawn |
Coming into spring I decided it was time to do something with my sad looking lawns - more weeds than blades of grass. I learnt about dethatcher's and hired one to go over our lawn. Bill helped me as they are rather heavy machines to operate. But what a difference it should make, also after sowing new grass seed as well. 🤞
While all this is going on, Bill managed to hurt his second to last finger while working on the deck, which resulted in 6 weeks of physiotherapy. Who knew what a problem a droopy finger could be. And how much you can exercise a finger!😂 Thankfully it did recover. Mostly.
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| Hopefully finished before Christmas! |
The days are getting longer which is lovely to watch the sunsets from our deck at the end of our working days around the place. We managed to get the COF for the Bus, which also allowed it to get registered once again. Happily, all legal to get back on the road in time for our next road trip down south to Central Otago to meet Em & Nick and the Granddaughters when they come over for a wedding in October. Looking forward to seeing them all and having a trip away in the bus with our smart new seats.
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| Driving the Ute with a bit of debris on it. |
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| A lovely Nelson sunset 💕 |
