Not Again!

Bernie took the truck to 'Beaver's Engineering' on Friday to get the shed put on. When he tried to put the legs of the rig up he was surprised to find there was no power. Only two days before the batteries were showing they were 100% full, so to see everything completely dead flat was odd. 
To say we were disappointed there was another problem was an understatement! Bernie rang solar Dave in Tauranga to ask him what might have happened.He didn't have a clue. It's been a month since the fuse melted in Mapua and we are still waiting for Dave to send down a replacement circuit breaker. Obviously we are not a priority. Hopefully after speaking to him the circuit breaker will arrive this week.
The next day Paul and Amanda came to the rig with us to put a metre on it to try and locate the problem. As Bernie put his hand near a battery terminal it sparked which indicated it did in fact have power. Once the screw was tightened the power soared through. And despite it being an overcast day with no sun, the power was rushing in at 14amps. We've never had it charging like that before. Bernie then checked the other screws and found 6 of the 8 were loose. Poor workmanship! 
So, we are getting an independent electrician to come and check it over to reassure us that it is safe to use again.

Bernie, Paul and Graeme.

Duncan Bay

Duncan Bay was picturesque despite it being an overcast wintery day. We wondered whether we'd be able to take the rig there but found the road to be too narrow in many places.

Why cut the tree down when you can make a road around it.

New Neighbours

How lucky am I? Becs and Hamish have just bought their first home and it is across the road from us. So excited for them and so happy to have my girl so close.

Becs & Hamish toasting their new home.

Introducing Inkah to the cat door.

A sunset from their deck.

First rose to bud in their garden.

A Weekend At Home

While waiting for the pantry to be installed and the circuit breaker to arrive we haven't been able to get away in the rig. It's been nice having some weekends at home, especially having the fire to enjoy on these cool wintry days and nights.
Yesterday I climbed out of bed early (which is unusual for me on a Saturday). I was keen to get some sunrise photos. So, Oakly and I wiped the frost off the back window of the car and drove around Nelson to get some shots that I had wanted to get for a few months.

Taken in Atawhai with the Boulder Bank in the background.

At Tahuna Beach looking towards Rocks Road. Looked magical with the mist coming off the sea.

Must have been chilly to have a frost on the sand at Tahuna Beach.

A Winter Weekend In Mapua

We were super cosy and warm when we spent a third weekend in Mapua. But this time, it was A Winter Weekend.
The gas heater was very efficient. We were toasty warm and we had the added visual effect of flames from the heater. 
After doing our sums, we think we would be better off getting a diesel heater installed. We've heard that it is cheaper and very efficient. Once we live on the road we will have to watch our pennies, so it will make sense to switch to diesel now. 
Here are some photos of our weekend in Mapua.

Snoozing the night away

Parked up for the morning sun on a wintery day.

Fabulous Fridge

We are thrilled with our new fridge. It's efficient and economical. We spent a few months getting quotes from local kitchen joiners for a pantry and cupboard to fill the space that we'd have once this unit was removed. They were much more expensive than we had thought, eventually we decided on 'Ruby Bay Joiners'. So in a few weeks time hopefully we'll never notice that we was once a double fridge/freezer.

This is the original fridge/freezer that came with the rig. Yes, it does looks great, but it would cost us an arm and a leg to run it.

Here's the new fridge/freezer that we installed. Yes, it's a domestic appliance - and we're extremely impressed on how efficiently it works on solar power. It'll look even better once the new joinery is fitted, plus we'll have extra storage!

Still learning

Queens Birthday weekend meant a 3-day weekend. So we decided to go to Mapua for a couple of nights, as we wanted to go away without traveling a huge distance. I dropped Bernie off at the rig in the morning and drove to the Appleby River to give the dogs a run. Bernie sent me a text saying he was on his way – so we arrived at Mapua Leisure Park at the same time.

After confirming our registration, we chose a site close to power and water. For this stay we weren’t too concerned about having the sun as we wanted to try a few days of being hooked up to power. We had brought along a heater to use instead of our gas heater.

Setting up definitely seemed easier, I guess our confidence has grown. We parked up and unhitched without having to second-guess everything we did. I remember it only being a couple of months ago that this procedure seemed like an ordeal for us.

Once we were level and the slide outs were out, we switched the heater on. Then we started setting up the dog enclosure. I smelt something strange and mentioned it to Bernie. He smelt it as well. Only a week ago we had someone replace the circuit breakers (because our solar panel gauge indicated we weren’t getting any power). So we presumed the new breaker that has been installed must have been giving off a ‘new’ smell.  Ten minutes later the smell seemed stronger, plus it smelt electrical.When we looked around, we discovered smoke! 

Maybe having the heater on had overloaded the inverter? But shouldn't it have tripped the circuit breakers? Instead the wires had become so hot that they'd started smoking and had melted the wires and casing which came from the inverter. 
The scary part was, after all this heat and smoke, the circuit breakers had not tripped.

We were under the understanding that any electrical overloading within the rig would trip the circuit breakers.  

#whatelsecangowrong

You can see how hot the wires had got, the plastic casing had melted.

We put a smoke alarm beside the inverter so we could sleep without worrying.