After hiking out from the Holdsworth Jumbo circuit it was straight to the airport. As there are less people in the country getting through check in and security was very quick and easy. I ended up early to the flight. And then due to wild storms up north the flight was delayed for over an hour. It was a rough landing in Auckland and rain was flooding everything. But i had made it, collected my bags and jumped on the airport bus to the city. Needing to get in there as quick as possible because my accommodation was a room above a pub which had already closed for the night. Getting off the bus i was soaked by the time i had walked through the empty pub doors. The manager was behind the bar with my key and finally i could get into bed.
The next morning i was heading off to a new site to supervise the glaziers. A quick stop at the supermarket and i was on my way. First getting stuck as the street i wanted to cut through was closed by a construction site. Then the next walkway was being remade and i had to walk around the block. Arriving outside the site it was all locked up with security fences to stop the public from getting in. So finding the goods entrance and site office was hard work. But i made it there and spent the next hour on the phone trying to locate people on site. They were not in the lunch room, the site office, their site office, the fabrication area or even on the roof. I think we had all been going in circles trying to find each other.
Once found it was an easy week of setting the ropes and assisting on the jobs. The main task was to install and weatherproof the earthquake expansion joints that ran down the height of the building. And then if there was time continue sealing up all the windows that needed it.
I was up here for a week and it was an interesting scope of work on a new building with fun rigging challenges. Then on Friday i was on a late afternoon flight. I always give myself enough time to get checked in before departure but due to early peak hour traffic i was sitting on a still airport bus on the fwy. Eventually making it on time but not long enough to get a good dinner at the airport.
Back in Wellington i have been bouncing around a lot of buildings. Replacing and sealing windows, inspecting signs that have started to blow off the building in gale force winds, lots of calls about leaks due to the strong southerlies pushing the rain in. And then trying to find and fix those leaks on dry days. Some are easy to spot with huge gaps in the window frames and others are a challenge. Lots of anchor inspections so that we and the window cleaners can use the systems installed on the roofs.
The long job that we keep coming back to is concrete column repairs. During the day we get started on the repairs and after office hours we install this net and start the demolition of the next area we need to work on
I have not used nets like these before as a lot of my concrete repair and demolition has been on the side of power station cooling towers with nothing below us. We just catch all the big bits in our buckets and lower it to the ground. Not worrying too much about the small bits that fall. But here we rig up nets and work inside them. So that everything including us is contained.
One of the things i love about this job is all the different roof tops i get to visit. Even if i know an area well i am seeing it from a different angle. And this was a simple job to replace a few windows around the building. They were removed and installed from the inside but they needed us outside to clean up the seals. A fun and relaxing job with lots of different rigging on the roof then waiting until they needed me. Which gave me time to take a photo of wellington from the suburbs where we normally never go.
Even in the colder months there is something going on around town. Matariki festival celebrates the Maori New Year. Along the waterfront was set up lots of fire pits for people to warm up around, a marshmallow toasting area, music, glowing gateways and sculptures and food vendors. We arrived early and they had just opened up so there was not much going on. The weather was playing nice. Wellington with no wind can be an amazing city though it is quite rare.
Further around the waterfront fire pits had been installed floating on the water. And the lights on the left are the trails of the boat full of wood that had been out there keeping the fires going.
Being such perfect weather we walked the long way home and i was able to get a few photos of the glassy water and great reflections looking back at the city.
The other side of the weather here in Wellington is wild. Strong winds are normal, rain can come and go. But when a southerly sets in it is gale force wind for days and flooding rain. This is when the boss gets a lot of calls for jobs as people are noticing the water leaking through into their buildings.
I had gone into work for a few emergency jobs one morning. As it is to dangerous to get outside on the ropes. We look at the internal leaks and make as many notes as possible to try and trace it back to its source on a fine day. The weather that day was getting worse and worse. So we called it off early and i headed back to the van. I braved the storms and headed up to a lookout to see what was blowing over the city.
Being on an exposed hill in high winds and wild rain is a lot of run but not the best idea. Our van is normally parked in the bay down to the left. And that was visible for awhile and then this whole view in front of me disappeared.
Looking the other was the sun was trying to get through the clouds but it kept on being shut out.
When i took this photo the city did not look that bad. The view would soon change and the storm set in for 3 days. Which meant no work for me and even worse no solar power to top up our vans batteries. The starter battery was isolated and ok. But the other one which runs the fridge and charges the laptops was running very low. So all the perishable food was eaten that night and more time was spent reading ebooks and less tv shows were watched while the storm raged on outside.
Knowing that a storm is rolling in for a few days we will change our campsites. If either of us need to work then we stay at our normal spot because of the easy transport into the city. But if its the weekend or we know that work is off then we have a few spots to hide at.
Below is a photo of waking up to lovely weather after 2 days of rain and strong northly winds. Only a few other cars were staying here but on a summers night the carpark would be packed.
This site a few weeks before in the wild storm coming up from the south was inaccessible due to the waves crashing over the road and flooding into the houses. All off Wellington seemed to be underwater. I was brave and left the van to walk 10 minutes to the library for the day. I should have worn my gum boots as my shoes were soaked and took a week to dry. But my overpants and jacket held up well to the storm. And in the Library i was watching all the news articles and videos of the flooding around town. All the landslides and road closures. Happy that i was not out in it.
But on a calm day Wellington can be amazing. Walking home i spotted this sea kayaker alone out there in the harbour. It looked so lovely and peaceful. Even the water all along the edge was crystal clear. The rock and fish could be seen below.
Wellington and Melbourne’s weather in winter feel very similar to me. Lovely blue sky, cool crisp mornings with the heat of the day being blown away by the evening. It is colder over here which is great for working outside on the tools. Though nearly every day is windy and very strong winds are common. Which is not the best when you are hanging around on a rope getting pushed around a building. And you are still expected to get the job done. Otherwise there would only be a few days a year that you could work in perfect weather.
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