Home Improvements Part 1 - The Garage

After living in our house for over a year we decide to start making some small improvements, starting with Ted's favorite room... the garage.  Now most of you probably think that a garage is for storing your car, but that is not the case at our house.   Due to the large number of bikes we own, the total is currently sitting at 7, and the need for a repair centre... our garage contains bike and sports gear storage, a workshop, oh yeah and the laundry.

First up for the garage renos was to paint the floor and finish the walls properly with insulation and dry-wall.  One thing we have learned through our reno process is that Kiwis don't have the same standards of building as we Canadians.  For instance, there does not appear to be a standard spacing distance for 2x4 framing, as you can see in the photo below.  Also, they are not so concerned with making things straight and seem to underestimate the value of insulation. 

In the process of re-finishing the walls we ended up having to replace a few of the ceiling panels due to a minor mis-hap...

Once the floor and walls were all set Ted decided to build a work bench.  He found plans on the internet and we set about building two extremely sturdy work benches.  Now there is certainly no room for the car.

The piece de resistance is definitely the bike stand.  Ted took apart a folding bike stand that we had from Mountain Equipment Co-op and proceeded to secure it to the ceiling joists.  So, now we have a bike stand that extends down from the ceiling, and can be pushed back up when we are finished with it, very cool!

Well, that is it for this installation of Bertrand's Home Improvements, on the next session see Meg and Ted's excellent garden modifications.

Canadian Visitors

Well 2012 has started off well, with two sets of Canadian Visitors coming to New Zealand.

First, Ted's cousin Ryan and his friend John came to NZ for some road biking adventures in January.  They stopped in Wellington for a few days and we of course took them mountain biking.  Ted was even kind enough to lend them his big heavy downhill bike (hoping to slow them down a bit on the uphills).  There may have been some minor falls but overall no permanent damage.

In March, Ted's Parents came over for a month of relaxation after his dad retired.  They arrived and were immediately whisked off to the top of a hill to spend the afternoon watching a mountain bike race.  As I was the only one there (Ted was on his way back from fieldwork) and was racing, I simply pointed down the hill and said walk until you see a big jump, then just sit down and watch. Several hours later, I found them in the correct place, not bad.

The first week was spent in Wellington, visiting the museum and getting used to the public transit systems while Ted was working and I was away in New Plymouth.  On Friday, Ted and his folks left Wellington to begin a tour of the North island, with the first stop being New Plymouth, to pick me up of course.  We stayed there just long enough to catch a sunset and a sunrise. 

 Picture of sunset from the water front in New Plymouth.

After New Plymouth we drove north to visit the glowworm caves in Waitomo.  We did a tour through the same cave that was used in the BBC Planet Earth movie on Caves.  We walked into the cave a few hundred meters with headlamps and then got in a boat, turned our lamps off and sat in silence while the tour guide moved us along the river under the glowworms, it was surreal. 

Team Bertrand before entering the Cave.

After seeing the glow worms, we spent the night in Hamilton and the following day drove up to the Bay of Islands. We stayed in a really nice, quiet place just outside Pahia with a view over the Bay.  By this time it had started raining - and I mean raining - but after 9 inches came down in ~24 hours it started to let up a bit. 

View from our hotel room.

We had plans to go fishing on our first day in the Bay of Islands but had to re-arrange due to the big storm. So instead, we drove to one of the remaining sections of native rainforest to see giant Kauri trees, which are ~2000 years old and absolutely enormous. Pictures can't capture the experience of standing in front of these trees, they are that big. We saw Tane Mahuta (Lord of the forest) and Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest).

Te Matua Ngahere in the background, but the picture doesn't do it justice, the trunk of this tree is 16m wide!

We also had time to visit the Waitangi Treaty grounds, New Zealand's sort-of Charlottetown equivalent, where the country was born.  The Waitangi Treaty was a document that formalized agreements between the European and Maori peoples for land rights and sovereignty. 

Luckily, the weather cleared up enough on our last day in the Bay of Islands for us to get out fishing. We started off by catching Jack Mackerel for bait and then used those little guys to catch Kingfish, Kahawai, and Snapper.  It was a good day fishing, although the seas were a little lumpy.

First fish caught, a King Fish.

Smaller King Fish.

Kahawai.

Bigger King Fish.

Kahawai.

Another Kahawai.

Our next stop was Auckland, it was raining again when we arrived, but we were all tired from the morning fishing and driving anyways.  The next morning we awoke to sunny skies so went up the Sky Tower (tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere) to take in the 360deg views of Auckland. From the Sky Tower you can see many Volcanic cones that are scattered through the city, like Mt Eden (in the picture below) where we stopped on our way out.

Last on the tour was Rotorua where we spent a day driving to some of the nearby lakes and walking through the Whakarewarewa Redwood forest (this is a non-native forest planted with California coastal redwood trees that are ~60m tall and growing). That evening we went to a Maori cultural village (Te Puia), and experienced a good tour of Maori culture. We were welcomed into a Marae (Maori meeting house), saw some cultural performances (including a Haka) and then feasted upon food cooked underground (a Hangi). Yum Yum. We also enjoyed the natural geothermal features on the property, including Te Puia geyser that is erupting in the picture below.

Te Puia geothermal geyser.

The last week was spent visiting various Wellington attractions.  We went to Zealandia, where we saw many native birds, Tuatara (a rare native New Zealand reptile) and Weta (big insects that are older than the dinosaurs).  We also drove about 45 minutes from Wellington over the twisty, winding, narrow Rimutaka Road to the relaxing Wairarapa wine region to sample some fine local wines - best known for producing excellent Pinot Noir wines.

Enjoying a sunny lunch at the Vynfields vineyard in Martinborough. 

We also took a short boat trip into the Wellington Harbour to Matiu/Somes Island.  This island has had a long history - it was used for many years as a human quarantine site for ships with sick personnel on board, and later became used as the most advanced animal quarantine facility in the world. It also served as a strategic gun emplacement during WWII.  

Matiu-Sommes Island.

Well, that about sums up a great trip. To finish off the visit, we feasted on a leg of NZ lamb and washed it down with the spoils from our Martinborough wine trip.

So who's going to visit next?

Love Meg and Ted