Hello Stephen Thanks for staying at the Bach and your lovely comments. We are adding another 20 Solar Panels in November which will help the winter battery bank charging. I'm not sure how to combat the -5 degrees and freezing water pipes overnight - waiting for them to thaw during the day and using the spare tank water seems to be the solution in the meantime....All the water pipes are insulated and have proper frost protection - a great part of the attraction of Clearwater is its remoteness and scenery - a small inconvenience of a defrosting water pipe is made up by the surrounds. Pls let me know when your interested in returning. Thank you.

Hello Wei Thank you for staying at the Bach and your comments, appreciated. We do have fire wood onsite and two large storage areas for wood however we mention for local Chch clients to bring a bag of firewood just to be sure. Your welcome to use the timber supplied at the Bach and every year we replenish it. The 240 volt LED lights operate off the same battery bank as the water pump pumping water to the header tank from the storage tanks so if that pump has drained the batteries in the evening it will have to wait for the following day to charge up the batteries...sorry for any inconvenience. At minus 4 degrees the water feed pipes to the house may be frozen early in the mornings, however our cleaner last week noted that by 11am they were running again and flowing into the house sinks etc. Thanks for using the kettle and heating the water - the Califont had been damaged from the previous guests and we were not aware of this until your visit and the cleaners feedback. A replacement Califont is on its way. Thanks again and i am pleased you enjoyed your weekend at the Bach.

Hello Marine Thank you for your lovely comments and feedback. I'll start my response with i should be appreciative that my parents had foresight not to take 3 kids all under three years to a remote Bach with winter temperatures at minus 5 well predicted and forecasted. I will now address your specific feedback. We were in regular communication on your arrival and throughout your first evening and from 9am the following morning. We had numerous voice calls and countless messages on Whatsapp. Solutions were provided and alternatives were offered on each of your issues. A. There are three large Couches in the living room, seating 7 or 8 people comfortably with a large coffee table. There is a formal dining table with 6 chairs. Additionally there are two large tables in the rear section, seating 8 on one table and 12 on the 2nd table. There is adequate seating and the 8 seater has portable seating if you required more seating at the front table / lounge area. B. The Metro Fireplace is rated at 18KW and up to 200sqm and a 4 bedroom home. This Bach is 80sqm and this model was chosen for being excessively oversized for the Bach to provide more than ample heating to the whole house. The 3rd bedroom is sharing an internal wall with the 2nd bedroom and has double glazing, underfloor insulation and wooden Remu floorboards on a cement base, ceiling insulation and 8" block walls to retain heat and is lovely and cosy. The wood fire is very efficient and gives off tons of heat, we often boil kettles on the top. It is central in the main room along the kitchen wall and if you leave all the 4 internal doors open it will quickly heat all the rooms. Condensation on the interior of windows and doors occurs when warm, humid air comes into contact with cool external glass. This is especially common in the winter when outside air is cold (minus 5) and dry, and the indoor air is warm and humid. Even if you aren’t running a humidifier, everyday activities like bathing, cooking and even breathing all contribute to the humidity in your home. Given it was minus 5 degrees, the exterior glass will be cold. This is winter in the New Zealand alps. C. The listing stipulates Fire wood is supplied and there is firewood onsite. We have two large 2m by 1.2m by 0.6m wood storage boxes all cut up to fit the metro fireplace on site. We suggest locals from Chch bring firewood in our access instructions as i want to make sure you have ample firewood. You were welcome to use my firewood and simply take any own unused home with you. This is a better policy than promising firewood on site and there being none when you arrive..... D. In the 2nd bedroom wardrobe there are three * 60 litre storage boxes with blankets / duvets - enough for every bed and spares. this is not a Chch Hotel, this is a Bach in the remote alps of NZ. we don't provide linen due to the remoteness and washing etc issues but we do have plenty of warm blankets / duvets on site if required. 2 A. The Bach is off grid - that is clearly advertised and there is no On-Grid electricity in this remote location - and this is actually part of its charm and beauty. Every bach in the settlement of 180 Baches are off grid and provide their own power solution. We have installed 4 battery banks catering for the different needs of the Bach and run parallel 12volt and 240volt circuits catering for different needs. We don't offer 240volt connections to guests - never have and never will - to protect our battery banks and source of power. We have recently installed low voltage electronic "projector brand" cutout devices to protect the battery banks from clients ignoring the warning signs of low batteries and completely draining the batteries. This automatic device cuts out at a certain voltage and turns back on at another pre determined voltage once charging has commenced. Running the 240 volt high draw header water pump at night time on your arrival drained the batteries. The instructions clearly comment about the best times to operate the header tank pump are day times in the morning. Electroserve and the other Solar contractors that installed the system have done a fantastic quality install. It is clearly not a simple nor a home made system. The planned additional 20 panels in November will ensure adequate recharging :) B. The shower does offer lovely hot water showers. We did not connect the shower califont hot water to the new granite top kitchen sink mixer tap as water can be simply boiled on the stove immediately adjacent to the sink, or on the Metro ambie wood fire heater really efficiently. All the pipes are insulated and having crawled udner the bach to udertake that process personally, i can advise from the tank outlet, every bend and join and every length of 2" then 1" rated waterpipe has been insulated right to the underfloor access flange into the house. Clearly catering for minus 5 degrees has its challenges and as the cleaner commented only last week, it was frozen at 8am when she arrived and by 11am the water was running again. i also noted you sent me a video in the morning of opening the tap to demonstrate the water was not running however you had not opened the Tank Valve to permit water to flow to the tap. Sometimes the simplicity of Baches is just too much for city folk....opening a tank valve permits the water to flow to the tap :) The newly tiled bathroom has a DOC and ADC certified pumpout toilet with a huge buried holding tank. These are not city cistern flushing toilets and don't use water in that fashion. There are three backup water sources with tanks available onsite. Simply opening the valves may have permitted you access to water - we have 8 tanks and 27,500 litres of drinking water onsite.