FORGING AHEAD
As shed locations go, it does not get much better than Rudi’s. It sits at the end of a long gravel road, high above Karekare Beach in the Waitakere Ranges where the only sounds are the chorus of tui and kanuka branches stirring in a sea breeze.
The corrugated-iron shed is a deliberate nod to the past. Stepping inside is like entering an early 1900s blacksmith’s forge: clay floors and open beams, antique technology, vintage hand tools, and the faint smell of burnt coal. It is brand new but feels as if it has always been here. Thirty-eight-year-old Rudi embodies a pioneering spirit of discovery and Number 8 wire ingenuity. Whether it is restoring or repurposing old machinery, maintaining his hot rod and his neighbour’s motorbikes, or creating his one-off art pieces, Rudi is always tinkering. In his current quest to upskill at blacksmithing, he is in the process of reinstating a 100-year-old Atlas power hammer and has modified an even older, coal forge.
Rudi’s new shed
Out here on the perimeter of farthest west Auckland, locals prefer self-reliance over convenience; sharing skills and materials as the need arises. When it came to building Rudi’s new shed, his mate Clint, a chippie, did the lion’s share of the build, digging out the pad, putting up the frame, and laying the roof.
“A lot of people out here save stuff,” says Rudi. “Clint used what timber he had. The iron on the walls is from another builder friend, Ty, and from my old shed.”
The steel purlins for the main beam and two rafters came from another buddy,
