A roof

We've been building a utility shed over the last few days and today it got a roof. One half of the shed will be enclosed for batteries, freezer, etc. and one half open for drying clothes during the wet season. 

We have to head back to the mainland for some more tin, hinges, guttering and stuff to finish it off. Hopefully the rain gods will give the roof a wash soon as it's got some suspicious yellow liquid on it that may belong to the dog at the hardware store.

A peek at the view

We've never actually seen what the view from the house site will look like because of the thick bush, so we cut a wee peek hole through today while waiting for high tide to get a load of timber.

Deforestation

The deforestation continues

Raft, rain and recharge

We ran out of data so have been cut off from the world for a few days until we could make it to the mainland but progress has been steady without access to the internet. By the way, it costs NZ$44 for 8GB of data.

Raft

We built the raft on Tuesday and did a first test tow out to Tapana with some timber for the lock-up. The picture below is the dinghy and raft stranded by a low king tide, awaiting some water to make it to the beach. The raft has the streamlining of a brick and it took us about an hour to tow it out to the island. The boat takes about 15 minutes to make the trip unladen so one hour with the raft is OK I guess, but we would be in trouble if the wind or sea came up.

Rain

You want rain? We got rain! The rain neatly filled our 200 litre drum and we got a few 20 litre buckets filled off the tent roof too. We were able to do both washing AND have a shower yesterday. We're still running it through the filter for drinking but it's delicious.

The tent largely stood up to the rain with just a few minor leaks that we will address with seam-seal when things dry out.

Recharge

We also took a couple of the solar batteries and the generator out to the island and tonight we will have our first electric light that isn't a dim led lantern. I've even got to use the laptop again so no more fiddling with a phone as a computer.

Nevertheless, even with power, nothing beats this technology:

Other than that, we've been continuing to clear trees to build the lock-up. When you cut a tree down the vines from neighbouring trees that can be up to 6 inches thick hold it up and the tree just leans over a bit. It's not until you chop down several trees all holding each other up that they come crashing down in an unpredictable massive heap. Clearing the tangled mess of vines and branches away is very time consuming.

Temporary water collection

Although Sunday is strictly a day of rest here in Tonga (you shouldn't even go swimming or fishing - just worship, eating and relaxing) we are a bit desperate for water so we quietly constructed some temporary rain collection. The chainsaw would have been handy but that might have been a bit much.

 

3.6 x 4.8 m = 27 square meters. Not huge but anything will be good for now.

Loo

A loo may not seem worth mentioning but it's a big deal for us. Sure it may benefit from some privacy enhancements yet but it's doing the job.

Today we collected some bamboo to make a frame for temporary water collection with a tarpaulin, and we also started clearing some bush and vines to make space for a permanent utilities shed for water collection and solar panels. We need to get the shed built in the next few weeks because the container needs to be returned soon.

We had our first shower in a few days now that we have our water filter in full operation. We can make about 30 litres a day, and it does indeed make a fine cup of tea, although we're still buying water for drinking. Hopefully we'll get to collect some rain in the coming days because hauling it from town is a pita.

We also got to try baked food for the first time since we arrived. Everywhere we have been has just had a gas hobb, so an oven is great. Tonight we're having kumala, corned beef, onions with coconut cream, a Tongan delicacy.

 

(I can't believe my life has come to the point where I am blogging about what I am having for dinner. I'm so sad.)

Cooking with gas

Well it took us three trips back to the mainland and a new regulator but we've finally got the gas oven going. Coconuts make a great cooking fire but this is so much more civilised.

There's not a whole lot of kiwi food here and some that is here I don't think I'll ever be buying:

Tent up

We're in the tent tonight. Barely got it up so no creature comforts yet but this will be our new home for the next 6 months or so.

 

The King whizzed through town today. The villages were decorated with flags and banners and in town they decorated the roads with children spaced every 20 meters or so. Seconds later he was gone. Never even saw him.

Malolo has landed

Good progress today. We paddled frantically over to meet the container at short notice. The duct tape on the kayak largely remained watertight today so minimal bailing was required. We got our boat, wheel barrow, spade, shovel, etc. and then towed the kayak back to Tapana Island. That should be the last we need to deal with that kayak. We have named the boat Malolo and adopted that for our vhf callsign. It means rest or retire, not that we will get to do that for a while.

We cleared a patch of bush for the tent this afternoon. The vines here make that pretty hard work as they can hold a tree up even after you've chopped through it.

 

Mandy started digging a longdrop and we used some of the soil from that to level the ground. The tent should go up tomorrow and we'll have our first night on the new block.

Great news just when we got back home. Immigration needs to see our marriage license, and although we don't have that with us, at least it means they haven't lost our Visa application. I'm sure we can get a copy somehow. It's been four months without any news so it's great to know something is actually happening!

Failure!

Today we got as far as getting the container on the truck, but still failed to make it to the beach. Loading the container was no small feat due to construction work on the dock pinning us in. We had to move half a dozen other containers to get to ours. However, what thwarted us in the end was a paper banner or across the road for the King's visit on Wednesday. There is a big agricultural field day here on Friday, which the King will attend. Before that, on Wednesday, he will do a trip around all the villages to inspect them. Everyone is busily tidying, painting and putting up ribbons, banners and flags. The governor was due to judge the villages this afternoon so they refused to take their banner down and the driver said that although we could strictly just drive through, he wasn't prepared to do that. So our container still remains on the truck. Should get it tomorrow.

Success

After an uneventful week mostly marked by "sorry, not todays" we have had a busy and productive day today. Miraculously our container has cleared customs and quarantine with no problems. We took the outboards to "Trouble in Paradise" to get the gear oil refilled and returned them to the container so they are ready to go. We've booked the only truck with a container swing for Monday to drop the container off to Ano beach, from where we can start shifting gear over to the island. I may have to ride along with the container to clear a few branches with the machete so we can make it down to the beach.

The only barge in Vava'u is in the dry dock for four months so it's a good thing we brought along our flatpack raft, which we will probably assemble next week.

The plan for Monday is to get the boat and chainsaw, clear some trees to make a camp site then set up camp on Tuesday, which coincides with the last day of our accommodation here in Maria's hut. Almost like it was planned that way! Wednesday should be our first night on the block.

p.s. don't ever drink this beer. In hindsight the Lion Red would have been quite good.

Well water

The well water is not entirely terrible - just a little murky and slightly salty. If it was OK for stock to drink back in the day it probably won't kill us. Our Berkey Black gravity filters won't remove salt but should sort out pretty much everything else.  I'm sure it will make a fine cup of tea until we get some rain collection working.