new zealand – Woody's Workshop

Better late than never

Four weeks ago I had an argument with my wood chopping axe. . While chopping wood against a wobbly tree stump, the stump wobbled and the axe came down on my thumb end. I didn’t feel it but it took off the tip of the bone and the severed end was only hanging on by a very thin section. My wife got me to the local A&E and a very nice paramedic cleaned and strapped things together. Since then life has been fairly miserable as I battle with buttons and being unable to do much in the workshop.

The wound is now less tender and the size of the bandage is getting less bulky. I have been warned it could take months to get any sense of feel in the tip. The problem I most stuggle with is trying to ‘unsee’ the flash back image of my thumb with its end hanging off.

In the course of recounting the incident to her golfing friends my wife was told of the Kindling Cracker. This is a wood chopping gizzmo invented in New Zealand by a young lady as a school science project . There are various YouTube videos of this device on their website. It reverses the chopping process and has the axe blade stationary with the wood being impalled in it and bashed with a club hammer. A protective ring keeps flesh away from the sharp bits.

As I have been out of action in the wood chopping department, we bought a Kindling Chopper and my wife has taken over wood chopping responsibilities. She can now split wood like a check shirted lumberjack. It is a simple but elegant design. I agree it is not as quick as chopping by hand but it needs much less effort and the chore can be delegated safely to other members of the family.

The only problem is I discovered it four weeks too late and I have got a few months left to dwell on my stupidity.

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Springtime in New Zealand

Sorry that things have been quiet but we have been on a 6 week trip to New Zealand. It was the only country that my wife and I both had heard so much about and both agreed we wanted to see. So I had to bid farewell to the workshop for longer than I really wanted but you can’t go round to the other side of the world for just the weekend.

We flew Emirates from London to Dubai, Dubai to Melbourne and Melbourne to Wellington with a few hours stop over at each. If we must fly long haul we like Emirates or Virgin whenever possible and Emirates once again was brilliant.

We had considered doing a golfing holiday through a package deal but it ended up like some sort of crazy route march with tee times booked months in advance. Not really a holiday. We chose instead a camper-van do your own thing style tour. We were both a bit apprehensive about being in close confines for 6 weeks (instead of our normal me in the workshop and my wife playing golf). It took a few days to get into the swing of things and work out a routine but once we were sorted it went well.

We covered over 5,000 kms wandering around North and then South Island. We usually booked one night’s camp site ahead. We used the Top10 sites most of the time but also some independent ones. Some sites were very good, some not so good. We had one where we felt like cleaning our shoes when we came out of the toilet block …

We covered a significant part of both islands and were blown away by the scenery. We struck lucky with the weather with the sun following us around on our journey. We did get to play golf but rather than pay NZD200 for a round we played small town courses for NZD30 tops. The courses were beautifully manicured, most were deserted with an honesty box for green fees and we met some interesting people.

I didn’t get to see much mechanical tech but there were a few heritage steam railways and museums that I couldn’t resist visiting.

It is a great destination and despite my reservations, the camper-van was a great way to see things and the 6 weeks flew by. Highlight for both of us was a front seat helicopter flight from Queenstown to Milford Sound via a glacier landing and with blue skies all day. Not many people see Milford Sound in sunshine. We were very very lucky.

The workshop awaits and my newly installed heater will ensure a cosy winter activity session.

Great to be back and it will be even better when we have shaken off the jet lag.

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Tag: new zealand

Kindling Cracker – a safer option

New Zealand trip

Springtime in New Zealand