Building progress - part 8

The drain layer was on site last week and sorted out our drains - no idea what exactly he has done and where the drains are buried. I sure hope he will indicate to us where we probably shouldn't dig in future....










They painted sort of a protection skin on the windows and also wrapped them in order to protect them from damage of the plastering which will hopefully happen next week.

 









3 different types of Gib boarding were used in the house: yellow for standard, green for the bathrooms and blue one in the kitchen. Quite an impressing sight when the whole garage was filled with the Gib boards. A week later all the pink insulation has disappeared, the rooms look a lot lighter now.

There are regular inspections by the council and so far so good. Here are some more photos of building material. The one with the flies is for Esther's mum - she knows why :-)

Building progress - part 7

Another week has passed with a lot of progress on the building site. All the insulation is in place- the whole house is horrendously pink - thank god this will soon be covered up with Gib boards.

The roof is finally finished. You can already see where the tubes for the Solar Hot Water installation will be placed. Of course they are on the North side of the roof - this in contrast to the Northern Hemisphere were the sunny side is South. The brick layers also finished their work. This will be plastered in the next couple of weeks.












The two gable roofs and all 7 posts will be covered in so-called Linea weatherboard. It's made of fibre cement and compared to timber it's very low maintenance. It's not the cheapest material so we kept it as a feature.

Building progress - part 6

A lot has happened on the building site last week. All the windows are in and we have a front door.

On Monday morning we walked through the house together with the electrician and decided on the location of all power sockets and lights points. 5 days later shows that he has been really busy - all the cables are in. Unlike in Europe, electricity cables are not protected by a PVC tube but hang loosely in the wall and ceiling spaces. It will be a challenge to drill into the wall for the first time when hanging up a painting and try not to electrocute yourself.

Unfortunately, the roofer is not that fast. The roof is still not finished and he certainly leaves a mess. Somehow a red roof tile has found its way into our stack of ironsand colored ones...

The gas pipe for the hob is only about 1cm thick, much smaller than we expected from European builds. The path of the pipe is also slightly different than expected, it sort of takes the touristic tour along the ceiling before winding down to the kitchen...

The bricklayers made a start as well. They built the wall to about half way, than had to stop and wait for someone from the council to pay a visit, inspect and hopefully approve it. As soon as they get the green light from the inspector, they can finish the brick laying. This is a council regulation to make sure the structure is decent.

Building progress - part 5

Northeast side

 Southwest side

It starts to look like an actual house. The walls are wrapped in "building paper" - sort of a breathable plastic membrane.

Roof tiles - sheet of metal

Holiday on Rarotonga - Cook Islands

After 2 years in New Zealand it was time for a quick holiday abroad. We spent last week on a pacific island called Rarotonga, the biggest of the 15 Cook Islands. It's only a convenient 5h direct flight from Christchurch.

George enjoyed snorkeling and I walked miles on the beach with my eyes fixed to the ground scanning for rocks, coral and shells. Unfortunately I couldn't take any of my findings back with me due to the strict custom regulations of New Zealand, so I had to take pictures. I'm sure my dad wishes there were some similar strict regulations in the Swiss mountains as he must remember all the kilos of stones I used to gather when I was little but than he had to carry them downhill for me.

One day, we hired some bikes to explore the island. There is one main road along the coast and it's only 32km until you're back at your starting point, that gives you an idea how small the island is. As it is all flat along the coast, this is the perfect way of sightseeing and getting some exercise.

We also joined two organized tours: The first one was sort of a safari with Landrovers taking us inland and up the mountains, very informative with a BBQ on the beach at the end. The other one was on a Glass Bottom Boat (so even I could see some of the beautiful fish) with plenty of time for snorkeling, again a BBQ lunch on the beach and a very funny demonstration about what you need to know about coconuts.
We hired kayaks twice to explore the lagoon. It's very relaxing to float above the coral reef and look for Nemo and his friends.

Weekend at Lake Brunner

This weekend we joined our friends Cathy and David on a trip to Lake Brunner where we stayed in a bach (Kiwi holiday home). We got a real taste of the Kiwi lifestyle: driving over a snowy Arthur's Pass in a proper 4wheel drive and cruising the lake on a boat.

Beautiful Lake Brunner with stunning mountain views

This coal train was abandoned and left to the elements in the bushes.

Some pieces can be found right on to the beach.

The boat...

The 4wheel-drive...

This is a Weka (or woodhen). It's a fligthless bird  and endemic to New Zealand. Weka are sturdy brown birds, about the size of a chicken.

This cheeky Kea was heading behind our back to the car park where he intended to shred some rubber, preferably windshield wipers.

Building material

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