Wash house politics

31 January 2011

This is our camp wash house - two washing machines, a clothes dryer and a tub - which seems to be the modern equivalent of the village well.

I do around four loads of washing a day - there are cleaning cloths to wash, as well as aprons and cloths from the shop, bakery and takeaways - so I spend a fair bit of time in the wash house myself.

Lots of chat and news is exchanged here; the weather forecast has been a hot topic of conversation, particularly with the cyclone activity we've been having.

After a day or two of rain, there can be quite long queues for the machines. The standard practice is to line your baskets of washing up in a queue. It's acceptable to take someone's washing out when it's finished and put yours in - if you're the next person in the queue. But of course people put their stuff in the queue and then wander back to their tents or off to the beach.

And that's where things can get a bit heated. If you're second in the queue, how long do you have to wait before leap-frogging the person ahead of you to get to an empty machine? If the dryer has stopped but the clothes aren't quite dry, can you take them out and put yours in, or should you want for the owner to come back and add more money? If they haven't left a basket on top of the machine, do you just heap the clothes on the ground?

The clever ones just settle in with a book and a cup of tea while they wait for their washing or their turn at the machines. One group even had a card game going.

Wild weather

28 January 2011

We've had a bit of wild weather in the last week. First we got the tail end of Cyclone Zelia, which brought us some stormy weather. There was enough wind in that to make people realise guy ropes aren't really optional accessories on a tent. And the rain made a real mess of our bathrooms floors, when it was mixed with the sand and grass tracked in on people's feet.

Then we got the remnants of Cyclone Vania. This brought some very heavy rain - around 250mm in 16 hours. Just as the rain was easing and it looked like the flooding was going to recede, we had a king tide. The extra force of all that seawater (driven further inshore by the easterlies) meant we had water in the camp that was thigh-deep in places.

Lots of people packed up and left, and we relocated some to drier spots. Just as we thought things were starting to calm down - more gale force wind and quite a few tent casualties. That was the last straw for many who left with ripped and sodden tents.

We've had a few lovely days now, and the camp was drying out well - and filling up ahead of the long weekend. But now Cylcone Wilma is headed our way, and may well hit as a category 1 or 2 cylcone, rather than the subtropical lows the others had been downgraded to.

The forecast has been too much for many more campers, who have packed up a few days early.And a lot of the ones who have booked for the weekend probably won't show. It's been raining now for about 6 hours and is getting heavier all the time. There is no wind yet, but no doubt that will follow.

Of course we're nice and dry here in our bus - although there is still cleaning to be done. And I'm sure we'll end up helping people save their tents again.

You can see what we thought was the highest point of
the flood - before the king tide hit.

Eventually it was as wet inside as it was outside.

Even the caravan owners were starting to get nervous.

There were tents camped over the whole of this area.

And these guys decided a beer was the only answer.

Camp cuties - a random collection

23 January 2011


Quote of the summer
Small boy waiting with his Mum while we clean the toilets: "Mum, why can't they just clean when we're out fishing?".

Isn't this what Kiwi summer is all about?

 

The baker's assistant resting after her early morning shift.
Starting at 3am after a night on the booze and two hours
sleep has really got to hurt.

These enterprising chaps started their own shop. Took me
a while to realise they'd flogged the magazines from the
camp lounge.



Climbing road cones have come to Pataua.



The 'welcome' sign.

Job satisfaction

January 16 2011

I know it's hard for some people to picture me cleaning toilets and mopping floors. Even Craig worries that I'm doing something I really hate.

But, actually, I'm getting real satisfaction out of it.

The days are long. At 7am I check all the toilets, showers and kitchen, just to top up the toilet paper and clean up any messes that have been made overnight. At 10am the other cleaner and I scrub all the toilets (14) and handbasins, scrub the showers (10), mop all the floors and clean the kitchen and lounge. This takes about 90 minutes. For the rest of the day I just check everything every couple of hours and then we do the whole cleaning routine again at 10pm.

Craig works from 8pm-1am most nights as night watchman. He strolls around the camp with his big torch and yellow cap and just makes sure everything is going ok. From about 10pm he starts to quiet people down - shoo the kids out of the playground, ask people to turn their music down, just generally letting them know it's time to wind things back. He has to keep an eye out for non-campers coming in - either to try and use the facilities or to get up to other mischief. He also has other work during the day - general handyman stuff, plus a couple of building projects for the boss; one of these is putting in a spa pool at the house.

So, yes, our days are long, but we have plenty of free time during the day to spend together. The weather has been fabulous so far, so we get to swim and kayak. We've had one late night attempt at floundering, without success, but will give it another go as the tides come right for us.

But one of the things we like most is how much people appreciate us. We've had thanks from clients before, but this is different. What we do here is having a direct impact on their lives. We're not just delivering a printing job on time, we're giving them a clean and secure place to stay, so they can have as much fun on their holiday as possible.

Our home

7 January 2011

We have very quickly come to think of the bus as our home. It is comfortable and easy to live in.

The BBC have done a wonderful job - they took our brief and not only met but exceeded it. Yes, we had some hiccups toward the end, but we never doubted their craftsmanship, nor their desire to give us the very best product they could.

And what girl wouldn't want a kitchen like this...

New Year's we have known

4 January 2011

We have just spent our fourth New Year's Eve together - and all of them have been in camping grounds. Seems this lifestyle of ours was meant to be from the start.

December 31 2008 - Arrowtown
We were on a two week holiday in the South Island - in a tent. We hadn't booked any sites, but were just taking pot luck. This was a very lucky find.

On New Year's Day we rode the lovely track around Lake Hayes; just a quick jaunt to clear our heads.

At the end we were flying down the gravel road to the carpark (36km/hr according to my bike computer). I hit a pothole, cartwheeled my bike and we had to trundle off to Queenstown Hospital.

I had a dislocated AC joint and a small tear in my rotator cuff. Luckily I stopped as soon as I hit the ground, so I didn't have many gravel burns.

For the rest of this holiday the tent stayed in the car and we stayed in motels.

December 31 2008 - Shelly Beach Reserve
This was our first big caravan holiday. There are only six sites at this stunning spot near Helensville. The reserve fills up with daytrippers from Auckland during the day, mostly there for the fishing. At night they all go home and the campers are left with a beautiful, serene harbour.

31 December 2009 - Paekakariki
This was our 'home base' when we had the caravan. The camping ground is quite big, but there are lots of mature trees and hedges so you don't feel like you're in a big parking lot. Just a couple of minutes away is the lovely beach, great for swimming, walking, riding and kayaking.

Some of the trustees who run the camp turned up on NYE with their guitars and amps, so we had free music while we barbecued and saw in the new year.

December 31 2010 - Pataua South
A very different NYE. The camp brought in a DJ and the campers danced the night away - starting with the little kids who had a great time, then slowly they were all packed off to bed and the adults got down to some serious partying.

I still had the late cleaning round to do (10pm-11.30pm), but some lovely campers turned up with a much appreciated glass of bubbles for the cleaners. Craig was night watchman, with lots of extra duties like putting up the gazebo for the DJ and lighting the bonfire.

Have a happy and healthy 2011 everyone.