On our last day on the island we went for a quick and last trip to our place. We were just having a last look at the floor and building so far – when Mark said I should look up,  a whole city was quietly floating by. Cruise ships come in every so often, and apparently right past our front door.

We stayed with Nanette and Murray – two very amazing people. Go to Aore Island Coffee if you can (http://www.aoreislandcoffee.com/)

These are the views from their place.

It seemed like a real building when they started pouring the floor. They could only do the back and lounge as we were still waiting for some more posts in the front. The guys did everything manually – pulled the water from the well, mixed the concrete with the small mixers, men shovelled into the mixers and out, then it was put in wheel barrows and put onto the floor. Douglas supervised and aerated the concrete and finally levelling it – all done manually.

The dirt was all levelled out

The floor area was then covered in black plastic

Meanwhile Mark was still doing plumbing trenches to make sure we had drainage for all the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen.

The first wheelbarrows of concrete – a floor is forming

All done manually wheelbarrows of concrete – the guys were wearing jandals (safety gear not really an issue here).

The finished floor

The floor when the cement started to harden off.

Everyone fences their blocks here, probably because there are huge cows roaming everywhere on the island. We also had a great gate put in. Thanks to Tian’s team – especially Collie.

The side fence

Our front gate

Collie our fence builder for ever immortalised on our fence

This is what it looked like before Cyclone Cook really started.

The cyclone on the horizon

Large raindrops

The rain setting in

Those raindrops – they were jumping off the water

Incoming

Me again – I think we spent the entire time wet and in our togs.

This is me – what else do you do when a cyclone starts (swim of course!)

These are just some of the shots of fish and coral at our place – simply snorkeling!

Mark putting in the electric cable conduit and plumbing in the correct place. Have a look at how our workers cook lunch (which they catch on the way over from Santo), also our future platform tree. Our bikes that Mark had to fix but performed properly for our two weeks.

Our trusty steads

The house posts from the beach

Thinking ahead, the workers have planted corn, melons and more papaya

The Beach

Workers cooking lunch