I’ve been helping out on the organising committee of the local Wharf 2 Wharf event. It is taking place this Saturday, and is a 42km run, walk, or cycle from the top end of the island to the bottom.

I thought I’d get involved to get to know some of the locals, help build local networks, and show an interest in my new community. Unfortunately my big mouth got me lumbered with lots to do. I started off just being the St John rep, then became the Safety rep, then one of the key organising committee members, then the glamorous person who gets to paint all the safety road signage in his spare time. You see we’re fundraising for one of the local schools, so we’re doing everything on a very strict budget (oh, and I had to write the budget too).

So 25 pages of the Safety Plan and Traffic Management Plan later, I’d planned for every contingency, and Auckland City Council were presented with a comprehensive plan in exchange for an event permit. The locals were horrified that council was insisting upon a permit this year – here on the Barrier, everyone believes we’re exempt from that sort of thing. The fact a herd of mainland Police and Vehicle Inspectors have just finished assessing and ticketing people for no WOF and registration has also caused some consternation over here. So when I suggested a comprehensive traffic management plan for this event, I was reduced to painting my own signs and making use of the handful of road cones the island possesses. But I managed to wear the committee down and they allowed me to go to the $2 shop on the mainland to buy some hi-viz vests. Yes, we splashed out.

My call to action came the other day when the Race Director suddenly had to leave the island for a funeral, and asked if I would run the Marshals briefing. Now, those St John readers amongst you will know that I relish in delivering a good briefing. Powerpoint displays, video footage, and lots of arm waving usually (one year I used a megaphone at the Big Day Out, but some sod removed the batteries ahead of the afternoon shift briefing, and the next year the megaphone went ‘missing’ just before the event, so I guessed I shouldn’t use a megaphone for this event).

Armed with copies of Safety Plans and maps (a small forest was cleared on the island to provide the paper needed for all the guff I gave the poor Marshals), the briefing was delivered to the packed lunchroom at the Claris Police Station, and those still awake at the end of it said I did quite well. My ‘opportunity to shine’ had come and passed just like that. The chocolate bikkies put out by the local constabulary were consumed with great haste by the locals (I think that was their highlight of the briefing), and then they all departed, leaving our poor cops with nothing to eat for morning tea for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow I have an ambulance being shipped over for the event (weather and seas permitting). Then on Friday I drive round putting up road signs, and on Saturday it’s a 5am start to save lives and dish out plasters. Our event of only 100 competitors is a far cry from the 10,000 runners who go to the Auckland Marathon, or the 80,000 who go to Round the Bays. But you have to start somewhere…

Tiling behind the wood stove

We have done some work on the house in between organising a race. The tiles could finally go on the wall now that we’ve finished all the demolition work. I kept wanting to tile so that I could get the stove working, but realised that I’d crack all the newly-laid tiles if I kept swinging the sledge hammer about the place.

Almost finished

We’ve finally got the stove back in place, and for the first time in several months, I got the wood stove going and cooked up a storm. Oven baked pork and potatoes, creamy rice pudding, and chocolate butterscotch slice all emerged from it’s cast iron belly. I’d missed having an oven, and was sick of having to cook everything on a single gas ring.

Stanley, the Irish-made wood fired stove, back in action

Another glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel: despite there being no walls in the pantry/Butler’s kitchen, I still managed to jam the dishwasher in it’s new spot and get it going. No more boiling up water on the gas ring to get the dishes done each day.

With this sudden cold snap, it’s great to have Stanley (the oven) back in action. Now we just need some fine weather so I can put the solar water heating system back together on it’s new perch.