Crew: Peter MaxwellAndre ThomasWarren Smythe

Project name: Onion Bhaji Location: Nagpur - Maharashtra - IndiaDate: 10 January - 1 February 2010Task: Building a functioning Rotary platform in the hardest of the 3rd world conditions and getting back home in 1 piece...

C H R O N I C L E S

I N D I A 2 0 1 0

Well, Me and the boys are back from India. It proved to be quite a memorable experience...

Check out the photos!

Pete

The Welder provided on site was a real treat!Looked like it had been on fire a few times before we got thepleasure of getting our hands on it. The pile of wires on theleft is the power supply. Dodgy to say the least! I only got the one shock, but it was the day after I had myaccident so needless to say, the Punjabs learnt another couple of new four letter words in English that day.

What do you think about the ladies with woks full of concreteon concrete delivery day? No concrete pumps that day (not even a wheelbarrow) Just 30 Indian peasants with wokson their heads to move 12m3 of concrete!Question?: How many woks in 2 trucks full of concrete ? Wages NZ $ 2 a day...Better wages than cotton picking –NZ $0. 30 a kg.

Considering that a Bottle of beer costsNZ $2.

Check out the latest Indian Rock Crusher! She’s cheap, quiet and only had to take breaks to breast feed her babythen she was back into making roading gravel out of the boulders.She had about another 10 piles after these and she was on her own in35 degree sunshine. And the boys at the TCDC thought they hads intough. They are all just girls next to her! “The Human Rock Crusher”

Onsite ChildCare!!

And I won’t even get started on Sanitation...

Typical Roadworks andearly morning Traffic!

The scenic view from ourHotel. Hell, who needs a sunset!

And how about the safetly standards on the worksite? Not to mention the workers accommodation...over 200 people and not a drop of running water ora toilet! Lucky you can’t smell these photos.

This trip however did put my modelling career in serious risk!During at fun day at a Water Park (pretty strange concept seeing as you can’t even drink the bloody water in India) I had a run inwith protection barrier that did little protecting. I came out holdingthe sharp end of the stick and 20 odd stitches in my mouth. Thanks to an Indian plastic surgeon I will be able to keep modelling.

The three wise men. The turbans are about6m long and took about 15 minutes to fit.Our 2 interpreter / helpers were Punjabis.They never cut their hair or shave for theirwhole lives! Could you imagine wearingthat baby in 40 degree heat.

MAIN RD KOPU THAMES

NEW ZEALAND

P.O. BOX 463THAMES 3540

NEW ZEALAND

PH: +0064 7 868 7571FX: +0064 7 868 7525

KOPU@XTRA.CO.NZ

Just think...

If we can do it there.

We can do it anywhere!

I just wanted to let you know that recently wehave had a couple of clients with problems withplatform drive units. Some older style driveunits have a number of obsolete or difficult to procure parts. Particularly Gearboxes!Recently we had a Farmer who's drive unit failed on a Friday night, unfortunately the gearbox had over time become obsolete.We managed to get the Farmer back milkingbut there was a lot of extra stress and unnecessary costs, something we can all do without at time like this.

We are all waiting for the greener economicpastures to arrive, but till they do rememberthat the best way to get there is by staying operational and avoiding untimely disasters.The Dry Season isn't far away so please takethe opportunity to check your platform andplan some maintenance.

If you need any advice or require an inspectionplease contact us, we’ll be happy to help you out.Hell, its got to be easier than India!

Maintenance Reminder

for Dairy Farmers

Pete and Vaughan