I travelled up to the Lodge last week to oversee the installation of our new hot water boiler.

Upon arrival I was dismayed to find a crowd of gate-crashers had trashed the place. The Aspinall cattle had taken advantage of a gate being left open and made themselves quite at home. This significantly added to the work required, taking several hours just to clear the doorways so the muck wasn’t all tramped inside.

A team of 4 builders/plumbers installed scaffolding and managed to remove the old flue and replace it with the new one on the first day. The old “donkey” and hot water cylinders were taken out and replaced with the new “beast” – a 500+ litre cylinder with firebox inside it which is designed to work along the same principles as the trusty kiwi thermette. The second day was all pipe work, with the plumber very well supported by year 13 students Moss and Matt who had come up to help. Incredibly, the boiler was operational at the end of a very long second day, and I can report that further generations of our students will be able to enjoy their hot showers on future camps again.

It was definitely a team effort, and I would like to thank the following people for helping it happen;

• The OBHS Foundation (the very generous donation from golf day this year).
• Volunteers Jeni Pelvin, Moss Pelvin, Matt Woodhead and Brent Nicholson (everything from plumbing apprentices to making scones to digging, shovelling, raking and more).
• Engineer Geoff Kernick (led the design team and helped with installation).
• Plumber Darren and builder Tony from Hawea (worked some very long days to get it done).

A few pieces of rare and highly collectible Lodge merchandise have returned to Dunedin following the work and will be available for purchase by tender. See advertisement later in this newsletter.