One Sunday afternoon, our entire family walked down to the Ahaura River. We went down a road near us that went straight down the hill to the railroad track, then turned to cross a large creek.
Esther was very much not impressed with this old bridge. She calls it rickety, although many trucks cross it every day!
The creek.
After looking at the creek, we walked a long way to get to the river bed. It’s not the easiest place to push a stroller, but it worked all right with the big boys who enjoy pushing their little sister.
We had to cross the creek to get out to the Grey River.
This is the confluence of the Ahaura and Grey Rivers.
Just below where these boys are, the water rushes extremely fast through a very deep chute. They were at the top of it, keeping each other from washing away.
We passed these calves on the other side of the creek on our way home. We sure enjoyed that walk—this is a very beautiful area!
Mr. Imagination picked these lovely flowers for me.
Hi there! This is Brittany with Kids Email. I messaged you about the Review Crew and KidsEmail. I haven’t heard from you. Let me know if you need me to resend the details.
Yes, I got your message, and signed up. We have already been using KidsEmail, and I sent you another email this morning. Hopefully you’ll get it.
Can’t put my finger on it exactly but this part of New Zealand has a very different feel to it. I’m enjoying seeing all of the pictures from the area around your new home.
It is a lot different. North Canterbury gets an average of about 20 inches of rain per year; over here, you get many times that much. That makes a much more lush appearance. There are a lot more native plants here, whereas most of what you see in North Canterbury is what the settlers brought from Europe. The soil here is very rocky; the soil over there is not. This area used to be swamp; gold dredges have turned over a lot of it here and broken up the hardpan, bringing rocks to the surface and making it usable for grazing. Other places, the farmers have done that so they could graze. It’s also a lot poorer here, since most of the mines have closed.
I remember those wildflowers . The orange ones are montbretia, (some are hydrids with coprosma.) Originally from South Africa I think. Lots of bulbous plants grow wild near railways on the Coast, where there is gravel . I think they like warmth and good drainage . You will see more in spring.
That’s interesting! I’ve been wondering what they are.