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More About Karamea

April 2, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After I posted the pictures from Box Canyon Cave, I finally had the chance to look at Elijah’s phone. He had more pictures I wanted to use! The first two show one of the spiders the caves in that area are famous for, and one of their egg cases dangling from the ceiling of a cave. The other is a fossilized clam in the wall of a cave. Apparently there were a lot of fossils in areas I didn’t get to.

This is a picture from Esther’s camera, from the Mirror Tarn/Moria Gate Arch walk. It was near the end of the walk. I loved James peeking around the tree, and Miss Joy marching on down the track!

That evening, we went out to the beach for a cookout. With two 4WDs, we could get right out on the sand, which makes it easy to transport everything for a picnic. The only thing we didn’t have was forks and spoons for our potato salad, because I forgot that box!

Miss Joy needed some time to play by herself. She felt secure, because she was surrounded by her family, but she was definitely in her own world here, digging in the sand. She gets overstimulated very easily, and needs downtime like this.

After our cookout, we enjoyed the sunset, and then headed back to our campground. This picture is looking up the Karamea River.

Looking across the estuary.

I took this without being able to see what I was looking at, back over the top of the ute, while we were stopped waiting to pick up a boy who had been swimming up river a bit from our picnic site.

We took a day off the next day and hung around the campground. Some people went fishing in the river. Mr. Imagination caught an eel at some stage, skinned it and cooked it for breakfast the next morning. He decided he won’t be doing that again!

Some of us walked out to the estuary. It was a gorgeous day! This is the Karamea River, next to the campground.

The campground, from the stopbank. Just past the campervan in the foreground is the caravan we borrowed, and you can see Simon’s ute beside it.

The estuary by day. What I didn’t get a picture or video of was someone waterskiing, being pulled by a quad bike running along the edge of the water! I had never heard of such a thing before.

Over the course of three afternoons, we played a marathon game of chicken foot dominoes, all the way from double 15 down to double 0. It was fun–but quite a mission!

While most of the family watched a movie in the camper that evening, I went for a walk with the younger ones who also weren’t interested, and we walked along the stopbank in the sunset light. Someone made a basket with willow bark, and Little Miss was showing it to me.

On our last full day, we drove all the way to the end of the road. There is a DOC campground there, at the beginning of the Heaphy Track. We wanted to find a place to build a fire on a beach and roast some flounder Elijah caught. It rained most of the way up there, and signs at the DOC camp said no fires allowed, so we turned around and went back to where he had caught the fish. This was some of the scenery on the way up. We had already had quite an exciting morning. Part of the family was supposed to clean the fish while Simon and I ran to the little local supermarket for what we needed for cooking the fish. We got there and the heavens opened. We got drenched to the point of dripping just running across the street and into the shop! It was still raining when we were finished, so we raced across again and went into the Information Centre to look around while we waited for the rain to let up. While there, Esther called me and asked me to get something to repair a leak in the camper. When the rain let up slightly, we went to the local hardware to get it. Then, she called again and said to get a tarp–the rain was pouring into the camper! We were all glad she and Mom had been inside it when the rain started, or we would really have had a mess.

This is where Elijah had set the flounder net. It’s another estuary. See the boys in a line? That is where the net was; they were pulling more fish out of it. They pulled the net out, then, and spent the next few hours mending it. We baked seven flounder in foil packets over the coals of our fire, with lemon slices on each side of them. Delicious!

This was a rock someone found at this beach. So pretty!

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Holiday Trip, Karamea, West Coast

A Young Reader

March 31, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Miss Joy loves books. At this point, she likes to read them aloud almost as much as she likes to have them read to her! In the last two days we’ve gotten a few videos of her reading. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Miss Joy, Video

Book Review–The Smell of Spring

March 29, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book:

Book: The Smell of Spring

Author: Mary Hake

Illustrator: Marina

Genre: Picture Book

Release date: December 15, 2022

In The Smell of Spring, April, a blind girl, enjoys the world around her and discovers spring scents. Join April and her menagerie of pets in their springtime adventures. The Smell of Spring shows children how we experience the world around us through the sense of smell. Kids will enjoy her many interesting pets and can have fun with the activities at the end using the sense of smell.

My Thoughts:

What a sweet picture book! I read The Smell of Spring to my 8- and 3-year-old daughters, and they both enjoyed it. Because we live in the Southern Hemisphere, we are experiencing fall at the time of this writing rather than spring, but a good share of this story is still applicable in this season.

This beautiful picture book’s main character is a blind girl. Throughout the book, her eyes are closed, so that the reader can remember that she is blind. However, though she can’t see, she can still experience the changing seasons. As she smells a new, unfamiliar smell, her mother explains to her that it is the smell of rain.

The girl goes on to experience many more things. She smells flowers, and the muck her dog gets into. Then, she smells delicious Easter eggs, the stench of a skunk, and finally, her favorite smell on her favorite day of spring: her birthday cake!

The pictures in The Smell of Spring are delightful. I love the way the illustrator showed smells wafting through the air. The text is fun, too; each page is written as a rhyming couplet. We loved seeing the girl’s pets. She has a dog and cat, but also a rat and something that looks like a ferret. Other little details in the pictures are fun to spot, as well. My little girls and I had a short discussion about smell and different ways of experiencing the world around us after reading this. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the books in this series!

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

Mary Ann Hake has loved learning and writing for as long as she can remember. She has been scribbling stories and poems since she first learned to write and has published hundreds of stories, articles, poems, puzzles, devotions, and more for both children and adults plus written hundreds of book reviews. She loved working in a bookstore and as a librarian and enjoyed reading to children at story times and conducting summer reading programs. She has also taught writing to children and at writers’ conferences. In addition to writing, she continues to work as a freelance editor. Visit her website, www.maryannhake.com, and subscribe to her newsletter for activities for children and updates on future books. Also find her on Facebook at Mary A. Hake author, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057370041720.

More from Mary Ann:

I have always loved books and reading, and even as an adult I still enjoy picture books. I had tried writing my own in the past, but The Smell of Spring is the first picture book I have published. The online classes I took during the pandemic and all the years of writers’ conferences, particularly Oregon Christian Writers conferences, have helped me learn and polish my craft. I have published hundreds of pieces, for both children and adults, in a variety of periodicals and a dozen compilation books plus some curricula.

I chose to present this concept book in rhyme because it came out more appealing and fun for kids than straight prose. The Smell of Spring shows how a blind girl uses her sense of smell to experience life around her. Along with her menagerie of pets, April explores her world. The story includes elements that would make it a handy companion text for connection to science: senses, the weather, nature, animals—domestic and wild, flowers and trees, and food. It also models responsibility as April cares for the animals. The Smell of Spring is the first book in the four-book series of Smells of the Seasons.

Readers of all ages are enjoying this fresh look at springtime.

Comments from early readers:

“In sweet, simple prose, with lovely illustrations, this book shows a child how they can appreciate their sense of smell.”

“A delightfully whimsical book that invites children to become mindfully aware of the many smells, both pleasant and unpleasant, that accompany the spring season.”

“A charming way to encounter the season for all children.”
“This was a very delightful book! I loved all the places she found smells in. I also loved how you made the book rhyme. It flowed very smoothly.”
“So well done, from the rhyme to the message.”

“Mary Hake gives the reader insights into what the world is like to a blind girl, who perceives the world through other senses besides sight. The focus on smell may encourage young listeners/readers to pay closer attention to the smells they like or dislike and to be more aware of different aspects of their world. It may also make them more understanding of children with disabilities.”

“Teachers, parents, and children will appreciate the activities at the end of this book.”

“The whole book is full of delightful images and easy-to-read phrases that describe all the many smells. Including some fun relatable parts. I think children will get a kick out of a few of the smells.”

Sign up for updates on my website, https://maryannhake.com/, and received a PDF of activities for children using the sense of smell. Further fun things will be coming in the future.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, CelebrateLit

MIRROR TARN/MORIA GATE ARCH WALK–PART 2

March 26, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The highlight of our walk, for most of us, was the Moria Gate Arch. I would not have recognized the reference, but some in the family who have listened to The Lord of the Rings recognized it, and when we reached the end of the track we saw a sign that confirmed that it was named for that feature of the story.

First, we reached an overlook just off the main track, which looked down the river towards the arch. That was pretty amazing! After admiring it, we kept on walking, and the track took us over the arch! It was rather unnerving, though, because if it hadn’t been for the paving stones embedded in the path, each with a moa track molded into it, I wouldn’t have known we were over the river. The trees were just as dense on each side of us as they had been all the way so far, although if I really looked I could sometimes catch a glimpse of the water off to the side.

Then, we were surprised, when we reached the far side of the arch, to find a hole going down into the ground. We went down it…

And found this!

Parts of the area under the arch were like a cavern, and the boys, of course, had to explore everything.

Elijah took this video for me, so I could show you a 360º view.

After enjoying this beautiful place for awhile, we climbed back out to the bush above and rejoined Mom, who had chosen not to attempt these steps. (Wise move!)

We found the most amazing mushrooms here and there!

This one was bigger than an adult’s hand!

There is an incredible diversity of life on a fallen log!

I love spots like this. An enchanted forest, maybe? (See the face peeking around a tree trunk?)

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Holiday Trip, Karamea, West Coast

Mirror Tarn/Moria Gate Arch Walk–Part 1

March 19, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When we were in Karamea for our family holiday, we spent one day exploring the Oparara Basin. First, we checked out Box Canyon Cave, as I described last week, and then we went back along the road a few kilometers to another carpark. After we ate our lunch, we went on a loop walk that took us to Mirror Tarn and the Moria Gate Arch. This track was supposed to take about an hour and a half to walk, but I think it took us more like two hours. We took our time and enjoyed the walk. It was so peaceful and beautiful, there in the rainforest!

This is the Oparara River, from the bridge we crossed on the way from the carpark to the beginning of the track. Some of the boys walked through it!

Rainforest!

This little bush robin came very close to us. They are totally unafraid of humans. Such a cute little thing!

I took this picture of a spider web to show Mom–and then forgot to show her. Well, Mom, you can see it now! I just thought it was quite interesting.

Mirror Tarn–a beautiful place!

Another bush robin showed up here.

Can you see two bush robins checking James out? He sat quite still for longer than I’ve seen him very many times.

As I approached this bridge, James laid down on the rail where you see him and said, “They ought to put the rails closer together so people can’t fall through and get hurt!”

I’ll share pictures of the rest of this walk next time. It was so beautiful! We took a lot of pictures.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Holiday Trip, Karamea, West Coast

Box Canyon Cave

March 15, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Though we didn’t want to go exploring every day, we decided to do some walking our first day in Karamea. We drove to the Opararo Basin, about a half hour’s drive north and then east of Karamea, and went all the way to the end of the one-lane dirt road. What a beautiful drive! I didn’t get many pictures of it because the road was rough enough that I was being bounced up and down so much that most of the ones I tried for ended up being blurry. Trust me, the terrain and the plant life were both amazing! The first two pictures give you just a tiny glimpse of what we were enjoying.

These fruits were ripe everywhere, and Simon was curious to know what they were, so he wanted me to take a picture. We’re still not quite sure what they are!

This was the entrance to the two caves. We were very disappointed not to be able to go into Crazy Paving Cave, since the entrance was locked up by DOC, but we walked on through here to Box Canyon Cave.

This is the entrance to Box Canyon Cave. No tour guides–just go in by yourself!

Yes, that’s Simon, with one usable arm, exploring the cave!

Miss Joy “read” the sign about the cave’s closure to her daddy, after I explained it to her.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Cave, Holiday Trip, Karamea, Video, West Coast

On the Way to Karamea

March 12, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had a short holiday this year! We went to Karamea, the town nearly at the end of the road going north along the West Coast, and camped there for four nights. It’s a lot of work to get away like that, but it was sure nice to have a break. Most of our holidays have been road trips, sleeping a different place nearly every night, so this time was different and we all very much enjoyed staying in one place for the whole time.

This is a view of the mountains as we drove along the Buller River, towards the Lower Buller Gorge.

This piece of sculpture is in front of one of the few buildings along the road that parallels the Buller. Can you see what the mosquito is holding?

I’m always amazed at the engineering that went into this bit of the road. It’s one lane there, for obvious reasons!

We had a bicycle rack on the back of the ute we were traveling in, and it hadn’t been fastened on quite right (inexperienced person putting it on!). We stopped a couple of times to tighten it down, and during one of those stops Little Miss posed for me on top of this rock, near the end of the Lower Buller Gorge.

A view down the river at the same point.

The Karamea Bluff was astounding! We had never been up there before, so even though we were warned that there was quite a hill to get over before reaching our destination, it still took us somewhat by surprise. We stopped near the top to admire the view. This is looking south-southwest from the road.

Of course, the young people in our vehicle had to walk on the guard rail! James drove us; Mom, Esther, Mr. Sweetie, Little Miss and I were the passengers. Elijah drove his vehicle, too, with the rest of the family in it, and pulling the camper we borrowed.

See the cut in the hill? That’s where the road goes next, from where I took the two pictures above.

This was the scenery we found as we neared Karamea. It is in a flat area, surrounded on three sides by mountains and the fourth side by the sea.

I had looked online to find accommodation for us, and found the Karamea Memorial Domain Campground. The rates were actually affordable for us, and they gave us this nice, private corner between some of their gardens. We parked the camper in front, and pitched three tents back near the flax, and had ourselves a very nice place to stay.

This building was nearby. It housed everything else we needed–kitchen, lounge, toilets and showers.

The boys found the pool table first thing. Simon was overjoyed to find something he could do, after laying on the couch for two weeks! He used the rest to steady his cue stick, and was the undisputed champion of the family, with his legendary hand-eye coordination. They spent a lot of time playing there.

They even roped me into playing one evening!

We had the use of this lovely lounge whenever we wanted to relax and read or play games together.

They had a large, clean, well-equipped kitchen.

The dining room was perfect, too. We spent several afternoons playing a long, continuous game of dominoes here.

We took a portable grill with us, and cooked meals over it at least twice.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Camping, Holiday Trip, Karamea, West Coast

Book Review–A Life Set Free

March 9, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book:

Book: A Life Set Free

Author: Rena Groot

Genre: Non-Fiction

Release date: 2019

A Life Set Free was carried in my heart for years before I finally had the courage to write it. It was written under a mosquito net in China. The final editing took place at a guest house in Israel. It is filled with stories from God sparing my life to leading me on incredible adventures as an ambassador with “The Department of Eternal Affairs” to so many cool places ~ Haiti, a jungle village in Belize, the Ghetto in NYC, behind the Iron Curtain in Poland and Romania, Israel, China, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, Africa, and Greece. It is a story of God’s love and faithfulness.

My Thoughts:

I always enjoy reading the story of a person’s life. This book was no exception. Rena Groot has had quite an interesting life and tells of it well. I appreciated that she did not go into details about the abuse she suffered, but just let her readers know it was there. Many of her experiences as a follower of Jesus are quite encouraging to read. I especially liked the way she described her turning to Jesus. I did wonder about the way she and her husband seemed to go their separate ways much of the time; that did not seem wise. 

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

My name is Rena Groot and I am honored you have chosen to take a moment of your life to read this. I am an artist, author, have a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta and a Masters of Religious Education from the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Cochrane, Alberta. I have been a teacher in Canada and China, a tour manager from the Rockies to the Pacific, a missionary to the ends of the Earth, a mom of four ~ and best of all, a child of God.

More from Rena:

Why did I write this book? Because I had to. I wrote it for me…but God wanted me to share it with the world…with you…so you could be encouraged and know that God loves you…more than you can possibly imagine.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, CelebrateLit

January/Early February 2023 Photos

March 5, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve had a wonderful summer! My mom was here for three months (December, January and February). She left a couple of days ago, just as the weather is turning cooler and feeling like fall. We’ve been very busy canning food from the garden and going on trips, so we’re hoping life slows down a little now. I’ll soon start writing posts and sharing pictures from our week of vacation a couple of weeks ago, but today I’ll share a few other pictures that have been waiting.

We washed Miss Joy’s blankie one afternoon, and she watched it spinning around in the washer! She can hardly function without that blankie, although we’re working on weaning her from it except in bed. Slow process, that.

We haven’t seen that many rainbows this summer, because it’s been a very dry year, but this double was gorgeous.

We played a lot of games with Grandma while she was here. This is TransAmerica; we also played a lot of Wingspan.

Even with a broken collarbone, Simon can play a game with his little sister!

The inside of the strip canoe finally got a coat of fibreglass and epoxy! Now it sits in the garage and waits for the gunwales and seats.

I took the picture above and then headed for the house. On the way, I noticed Gayle chopping wood, so got his picture, too.

All those tiny green plants are baby beets! I let six Chiogga (candy-striped) beets go to seed, and these came up from the seeds that dropped.

James and his crew are building a house at the far west side of our village, about a five-minute walk from our house. We went to visit him and see what they were doing. They had built the forms for the concrete, and were lining everything with polystyrene before pouring the floor.

The girls often went on a walk with Grandma, and this one frequently campaigned for a stop at the playground. I love how her ponytails are flying up in this picture!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Random Photos

Book Review–A Ransomed Grete

March 1, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book:

Book: A Ransomed Grete

Author: Chautona Havig

Genre: Christian Historical Mystery, Fairytale

Release date: December 28, 2022

October 1939—What happens when you run from danger… and into a trap?

After the Anschluss, Austria becomes a place its citizens don’t recognize—especially its Jewish citizens. Whispers ripple through Jewish communities—whispers about a chalet where a woman protects Jewish children from discovery. She’ll keep them safe, fed, and far away from Nazis.

Parents are forced to make horrific decisions. Send their children away to safety, possibly never seeing them again, or keep their families together and risk their children’s lives?

Hans Hartmann arrives at the chalet with a chip on his shoulder and a little girl in tow. He found Grete waiting at the train station. Alone. But life at Chalet Versteck feels more ominous than the streets of Vienna. Children sometimes vanish, and before Hans can figure out what’s happening, a high-ranking officer appears—and is killed.

It’s a race to find out who killed the man and get himself (and probably that pesky Grete) out!

A Ransomed Grete is the bridge book between the 1920s and 1940s Ever After Mysteries, combining fairy tales with mysteries.

My Thoughts:

Because I will read anything that Chautona Havig writes, I signed up for a review copy of A Ransomed Grete as soon as I could. I knew that it was a fairytale-inspired mystery set in the 1930s in Nazi controlled Europe. That means that parts of it are not very nice to read.

To tell the truth, I was quite confused through a lot of this book. I believe that was intentional on the part of the author, and there were definitely some red herrings thrown in to confuse the mystery.  Because I knew that the story is based on the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, I figured that the woman in the chalet must be on the “wrong” side, but it took a long time to figure out how and why.

While A Ransomed Grete will not likely ever be one of my favorites of Chautona Havig’s books, I like the way she ended it. Her note to the readers at the end is most of what made the book have value to me.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author of Aggie and Past Forward series, Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More from Chautona:

Picture it. Ventura, California,1982. Why I went to the lock-in, I still don’t know. It wasn’t my church, I didn’t actually like the girl I went with, and I knew no one else. In hindsight, I think God put me there, because that was the night I was introduced to Corrie Ten Boom.

Yes, they showed The Hiding Place, and a near obsession with all things Holocaust followed.

I don’t remember when my brain connected The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to that same war and helped me realize that the people bombing London and making the need to protect those children were the same ones ripping fathers, mothers, and children from homes in other countries and sending them “out into the country” too. But it happened. A sickening, nauseating understanding that still infuriates me today.

I railed against the evil soldiers. How could they do such a thing? My ever-patient father said, “Like our airmen should have refused to drop the bombs that ensured we’d end the war with Japan? When do soldiers get to decide which orders they will obey and which they will not?”

In my self-righteous, ever-black-and-white mind, I remember saying something to the effect of, “If they’d all refused, then the generals would have to listen. You can’t kill all your soldiers for insubordination.”

Dad’s quiet voice (it wasn’t always, but it was when he was deadly serious) answered that with a… “Considering the millions of Jews they slaughtered, I think they might have. Live soldiers can make a small difference.”

Look, Dad wasn’t defending the Nazi regime. He wasn’t defending sending innocent people to their deaths because some madman said they must. He did, however, point out that sometimes what seems to be acquiescence is really a front for helping people under the radar. Without proof of someone’s guilt, we could hope there was more to it than fear for self.

And that taught me another lesson—to assume the best of people until they gave me a reason to know otherwise. It also sparked ideas. How many men, women, and children pretended to be in league with the Nazis when they weren’t? How many people cowed to Nazi ideals out of self-preservation? How many others didn’t really see the evil until it was shoved down their throats?

It took forty years to do it, but those questions became the basis for A Ransomed Grete (pronounced Gret-uh, if it matters to you). What happens when the horrific occurs and self-preservation becomes a means of evil? I hope I offered enough hope amid the horror of Jewish genocide.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, CelebrateLit, Chautona Havig

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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