owners of our plywood bach were very lucky that Tāwhirimātea, the weather god, looked the other way as it passed down the coast of Northland, sparing the bay the worst ravages of wind-driven rain. Unlike Cyclone Bola when I experienced, with mop in hand, the poverty of my very basic sliding-door detailing, the little box seemed to survive this February’s deluge intact. The bach was barely completed when Bola slammed into the long-legged gable form, shaking and shuddering it, and coating its glass with wind-driven spume from the waves 20 or so metres below. The detailing is pretty basic, water blown and sucked inside is then allowed to drain back out: well, most of it. Since completion, the only modification
