The Long Drop and Shower Facilities
The setup of long drops and showering at the baches
on Rangitoto are unique. Quirky in how they are put
together with found materials and using the good old
Kiwi Do-it-yourself ingenuity.
The long drop is often located well away from
the bach and is often the fear of many a child at
having to visit it by candlelight or torch in the
middle of the night, I know I used to freak-out and
would rather hold-on till morning. The bach toilets
vary in design and comfort, with some having lockable
doors with windows to the three walls and hole in
the board. A few of the long drops were built over
a large cracks in the scoria that went down far enough
for them to be cleaned by the high-tide waterline,
but as the topsoil has slowly increased and filled
in the ravines they no longer work. The long drops
work well when not in constant use but after a large
gathering over summer they can get rather rank. I
myself enjoy sitting on the bog looking out a the
pohutukawa and piwakawaka early in the morning, it
is a unique experience that many people miss out on
with these modern fandangled flushing toilets with
their sanitary washbasins and soft 2-ply toiletpaper.
Showers on Rangitoto Island are another unique
bach experience. If it is summer you can often go
for a dip in the ocean to keep clean but after a few
days will find that you need to wash the salty crust
that builds up in your hair and skin. Many baches
had the good old bucket of warm water and sponge-bath
setup or kids could often be bathed in a bucket or
small tub. If you really wanted to get fancy you could
build an outside shower with a pully system to hoist
a bucket up with warm water boiled on the stove, or
a solar setup with black plastic draped across rocks
to heat water which is then gravity fed into a showerhead.
These shower cubicles were often made in a semi-private
spot out the back with a pully on a tree or a hook
to hang a bucket on, and a platform to stand on. Drainage
was straight into the porous scoria. The hot water
often ran out all too quickly and re-heating the water
took too long to make having a shower a relaxing luxury
- it was all business, but having some clean warm
water on your skin after a few days (or weeks) was
pleasure enough. Andy Heyward
 Drop
along to the Long Drop
Nature in the nude
Pooze and Weeze feeds the trees
They think it's food.
A poem written by Andy Heyward while sitting
on the long drop one morning.
The creative throne of inspiration.
Composting Toilets - Long Drop toilets are
no longer able to be used on Rangitoto Island, so
when we restore baches we have to look at replacing
the ‘hole’ but in a lot of cases keep the
building. The solution for this appears to be to use
a composting toilet system. Landcare Research www.landcareresearch.co.nz
have provided advice to help us choose the right system
(their new building uses composting toilets for the
top two floors). Auckland City and Regional Councils
have both been asked whether a composting toilet is
permissible and with certain ‘load’ restraints
we should be able to successfully install, use and
maintain composting toilets on Rangitoto Island. The
website www.compostingtoilet.org
provides a full range of toilets, home built and commercial
around the world including NZ. We think the KIWIBOG
will suit our needs the best as long as careful use
and management procedures are put into place.
That deals with the solids but what about the ‘grey
waste’ or kitchen and shower water? This can
also have adverse effects on the Rangitoto environment
so the Trust is looking at using products available
at ecostore a NZ company that specialise in chemical
free, plant based renewable products e.g. biodegradable
plastic bags and dish wash liquid. Other Bach owners
might like to consider what is going down their sink
wastes and look into changing their products as well.
Can only be better for ‘good ole Rangi”.
July 2004 Newsletter
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