I thought I'd said it was an island of PNG, Papua New Guinea, so north of Australia and nowhere near New Zealand. Its a tropical country.

MaryKath was an Adelaide girl, married to a Bougainvillean.

As for windows, they were secured internally, to keep 'rascals' out, so people often left their screws on sill so that they were readily available to lock said windows.. Rascals were highlanders who didn't mind a lot of stealing, stealthy as, they could crawl up stairs and relieve you of so much and you wouldn't hear a thing, as happened to us with our running gear in broad daylight.

Hope that is clearer now CA.

Map of BI, north east of Australia.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bougainville+island+australia+map&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&vet=1&fir=rfJvywezwfAFeM%252C-QtlxqvA7I_agM%252C_%253BAL0yPT_xDL0AzM%252CFXtNBcv2_x9tlM%252C_%253BC1GxaTbO06FeVM%252CFXtNBcv2_x9tlM%252C_%253B9Qe0P9Xl68p-FM%252C98K0cN3i8A9vXM%252C_%253Boa-OZ7Oeec7kmM%252CWDYw8SyLWJwd0M%252C_%253BJClenJLgjIJl1M%252CbcUX2m4aVNhB3M%252C_%253BUtry5l7VRWK6iM%252CI-02rWcawDCzaM%252C_%253BQsjU5Yua1OzIWM%252CY6e3yGi_PquDeM%252C_%253Bo_UhaaeZIrwGuM%252CWCvaWCo2E_q6vM%252C_%253BQfJMLsBcb5mjGM%252C9AFi8tfFI6ZjkM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRZjce9kftWOq85r8VPlWUbaiWcyQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizjp2Bv-X4AhUGE7cAHfafCPwQ9QF6BAgFEAE#imgrc=rfJvywezwfAFeM