Housing, more about the country, construction

Here's a fairly typical cottage in the little town of Dannevirke.  Our cottage was tiny, 600 sq. ft, this style house may be 1200, but many of the old houses have garages, and almost every yard has at least one, usually more, sheds - which are dutifully listed in the "for sale" ads.   Corrugated metal roofing is standard, with some decorative variations including curved areas over edge of porches and simulated tile designs.  Even sides of buildings are of the same sheeting, must be terribly hot.  I even saw a dog-house made 100% with that stuff.  NO shingled roofs, some flat roofs, no window screens or screen-porches as I may have mentioned before. 

In Dannevirke, two-story houses are very rare, and brick houses almost non-existant.  In the larger communities, more modern and two-story buildings are fairly common, still usually with a garage. Brick and veneer is more common in the bigger areas, but in Napier no brick.

The brick buildings there all fell down in the massive earthquake of 1931, icluding the cathedral. Many wooden buildings were preserved, then everything was destroyed by the fire that followed the quake. All Napier businesses now must have strict building codes including re-inforced concrete, steel beams, and the canopies over the fronts of  businesses entries.  The canopies are actually like marquees, with advertising about the business or almost anything else. They are supported by heavy metal cables, which must pass strict weight-bearing criteria, or be replaced.  Some have fallen in the past, resulting in injuries or death. You may recall  UVA had metal-supported porch fall when the supports failed several years ago, prompted review and replacement of multiple defective, rusted-out or loose supports. 

                                                                                                                                                                     

     As we entered more affluent areas, especially city suburbs but also resort areas, the money became much more apparent, with very modern elaborate houses, sky-scrapers, mixed with older buildings dating back to the 1800's, this country is only 150 years old in the european sense, so some of the big european -style stone and frame buildings are to be found.  University campuses especially reflect that english influence. 

From the 600 sq. ft. of our little cottage, next step up is a bungalow, not a lot bigger. The majority of houses in our village are modest, plain, most have very small lots, but almost everyone has lots of flowers, and everything is neat and clean, with very few exceptions. have seen a few trashy places, othewise impressed with the tidiness and good repair of houses.

Gorgeous dahlias!!  Some the size of dinner plates!

There are some upscale houses,but there is much less materialism here, and folks are content with slower life-style, low-key possessions, basic transportation, not fancy, and no attention to social status that I've seen.    Windows swing out from the bottom, altho casement up-and-down sliders in the older places, like ours.   The above is a TINY housse with the most amazing flowers all around it.  Churches have stained glass windows, usually oak pews but also variety of other native woods, some of which come from huge trees, most of which have been logged out.


No window screens, no screen doors, no screen porches altho some sun porches. this is true almost everywhere. No one seems to be bothered by the flies  - except us.   We hate them!!  Immediately went out a bought 2 fly swatters.  No central heat or cooling except in a few motels, we have a wood stove insert in the fireplace, and there is a space heater in our place. We stayed at an 1800's hotel with hot water radiators with the heat provided by a geothermal well. Our hot water heater is gas-fired, some are electric.

                                                         

Very few people have clothes dryers; hang them out. Our landlady has a dryer but doesn't like to use it, electricity too costly, we had to pay her a fee when it was too damp outside to hang our clothes. We did have a washer in our unit, she is big on organic and green, so low-industrial re-cycling everything.  Must admit, it is a great energy saver as dryers consume a lot of energy.

The north island was almost all lush, green and much gardening, with huge plats of plants, we were there is the midst of summer, so fruits (blueberries and strawberries - my favorites, plus plums, nectarines, lemons, peaches, apples) and veggies were plentiful.  The broad expanse of level fields was astonishing,  hilly areas full of sheep, and extensive re-foresting of evergreens, ponderosa pines being planted everywhere in rows all the way up mountainsides.  Evidently this was rain forest country until lumbering of the straight huge tress de-nuded the forests, and burn-offs to create farm-land got rid of the shrubs and scrub called "bush".  Tree stumps were evidently dug out by hand until mechanized machinery came in, and we will see huge piles of stumps waiting to be burned when weather permits.

Everyday is another adventure.  We have lots more pictures and stories, so stay tuned!!