Catch-up Blog 12: Moving in (Oct 2018)

The long-anticipated day, where we became residents of Maraetotara, arrived in mid-October... 

Big thanks to Bob and Phyliss, their caravan was prepared and is on loan to us. The caravan site was completed with big thanks again to Bob and also to Aqualine Contractors for doing a great job with the cutting, filling and trenching in of services and drainage.

The caravan platform is designed to shed water from the driveway and the hill above it into a buried drain and the platform is covered with pea metal, so we tramp less limestone dust into the caravan from the work-site.  This has all worked well so far. 

There was concern that the caravan awning had taken several hours to put up at the last attempt (due to no instructions).

But thanks to the photos taken the previous time, and colour coding of the frame we had it sorted pretty quickly... it took 3 people about 3 hours to get it all ship shape.

We purchased and put up our letter box, moved all our mail over to rural delivery informing banks, council etc.. of our change of address from couch surfing in Napier to our new country home. 

Maraetotara was now our official place of residence!

Last but not least in preparation we fitted saloon doors onto the site toilet, as we wanted to use it as our regular toilet rather than the chemical toilet in the caravan (reserved for use in bad weather emergencies).

We have enjoyed, sleeping, cooking and living on-site in the caravan - we got used to it very easily…  so quiet, private and beautiful.  The caravan has a great setup a full-size bed, microwave, stove, a four burner hob, refrigerator/freezer, electric/gas heating and proper bathroom and shower!  With the awning up we more than doubled the useable space and so didn’t have to keep putting away beds and tables... we just leave it all setup.

We also discovered that the caravan location did not have cellphone coverage, so zero texts, calls or data.  We have to walk back up towards the house site to get coverage - a hassle… that quickly became routine, as we broke through our addiction to always-on technology.  We have to be deliberate and make a concerted effort every time we wanted to communicate to the outside world.  We also quickly found that our best reception was sitting in the site toilet - a 4G dunnie! So (as long as we are moved into the house before winter), we feel no mobile reception in the caravan is overall positive.. ha ha

We had been moved into the caravan for two days when we went to our first gathering with our Maraetotara neighbours, with a fancy-dress Halloween party for the local kids and adults hosted by Matt and Dana at Anawai Station. 

A really great night, such friendly people and we were welcomed into the community.  Two days after that we were scheduled to pour the foundations, but thats another catch-up blog...