Week 21- We built this kitchen on rock and clay

Construction of the kitchen began in earnest on Monday morning. When I say kitchen, I mean another wooden hut where the fridge, sink, pots, pans and plates will be stored but it still needed building! The site is on the side of a hill so Jack, Mark and I had to first dig four holes about 800mm deep for the supporting posts to be cemented into. We dug, by hand, through the hard top-soil, through the roots and then down into the clay until we were on our hands and knees scraping out the last of the dirt. The first post went in with a bag of quick dry cement and about 3L of water. We had to wait 15 minutes before we could compact the clay back onto the cement and then we used it as a reference point for the subsequent posts. We used supporting stakes using triangulation along with the spirit level to make sure our posts were vertical and we used string lines and measuring tapes to get them in the right place. By the end of the day we had all the posts in and the outer timber nailed on before we all headed down to the beach to throw the frisbee and have a swim in the warm sea.

That evening Clare treated us to lamb for dinner which was the first time I’ve had lamb since I left home. You’d have thought I hadn’t eaten in weeks the way I took to the joint! After dinner, we dropped Mark to the ferry and also left my bike there as I wasn’t quite ready for the full 11km cycle the following morning. Fast forward 12 hours and Clare, Jack and I went for a walk on the beach and I decided to have a swim as I wouldn’t have the opportunity later in the day as I was catching a bus to the ferry back to Auckland for a physio appointment. On the bus, I met a local woman who was writing a book about the political changes in New Zealand in the form a conversation between a grandmother and granddaughter. She also told me she had two sons one standing at 6’8” and the other at 6’10”! The physio was pretty happy with my progress and worked the muscle hard so I was pretty uncomfortable during the evening. The next day I went for an 8km cycle and it felt better for it!

In the mean-time the niece of Mark’s friend Jeremy, Alice, arrived to stay for a few days. They are both from just outside Belfast so it was pleasant to hear an Irish accent away from home. Jack left for a beach frisbee tournament in Nelson on Thursday morning and I got the bus with Alice to mission bay after seeing the physio. We swam in the sea and enjoyed the warm 26°C weather before catching the bus back to Queen Street (for some reason the bus driver charged her $5.50 and only charged me $3 despite Alice being two years younger). In the evening, Jeremy’s bar was celebrating its 19th birthday and was having a celebration. Alice was obliged to go and I was told to go with her because I was young. Looking at me with my ginger beer and her with her rolled-cigarette and rum and coke we decided we weren’t exactly kindred spirits but we did get to know a fun couple from McGill University in Canada. She was French originally but then moved to Miami and then Nicaragua before going to Canada whereas he was from Boston and graduated from Maths and Physics last year. They are now travelling New Zealand together for a year having recently got back together. Despite both being Irish, I seemed to enjoy the traditional Irish music being played by the band far more than Alice but by about 02:00 I decided I’d had enough and walked home. Alice arrived back having taken a taxi at around 03:30.

Alice was feeling a little worse for wear on Friday and we didn’t see much of her as the rest of us were getting ready to go back to Waiheke to finish the kitchen! Mark took the car on the car ferry and I took the passenger ferry with my bike. I cycled most of the 11km to the batch but decided not to push it too hard and Mark brought me the last few kilometres. Then we were straight back to it, finishing off the platform for the floor and I cut the decking to the right length using the drop saw. When construction finished for the day, we had a calm swim before bed. We did a full day’s work on Saturday, laying down all the decking and building the first two walls. It takes a surprising amount of time to hammer all the nails and make sure everything is square and flush. We had our usual evening swim before dinner and collapsed into bed early after the long day. By Sunday evening we had finished putting up all the walls and even built the roof structure. All that was left was to nail on the corrugated roofing and finish the wiring and plumbing. We put a few sheets of plywood on the roof in case of rain before retiring to the beach, content with the day’s efforts.

Mark and I had a walk, tired out the dogs, threw the frisbee and had a swim before having a proper clean at the public showers (even if they were colder than the sea!). Keen to put our feet up for the evening we went out for Indian for dinner. However, before we got there we were stopped by Oscar. Oscar is a Kunekune pig who was on an escape mission, wandering in the middle of the road, and yet was extremely obedient when called by his disgruntled owner and came running back. I had Lamb Rogan Josh for the first time which was delicious and the restaurant owner explained how hard they have been hit by the water shortage on the island. They don’t have enough water to wash all the dishes and despite being on a priority list only get a delivery once a week.

You can see all the construction photos here.