Once a month, we go to church in Waikari instead of Kaikoura. Normally, we go back home the same way we go there, via the Scargill Valley. In April, however, we went through Waipara to visit a friend on our way home. As we left Waikari, we noticed that the Weka Pass Railway had a sign out by the road, and then we saw the steam engine coming! This old railway line is only used now for an excursion train, and only runs a couple of days a month. We turned around and drove back to Waikari to see the train come into the station, and then Gayle got the idea of taking the children on a ride! Someone had to drive the van to the other end. He would have done it, but I offered to let him ride with the children, and I would drive the van and pick something up from a friend in Waipara on the way to the station at that end. The children loved that ride! They still talk about it. Hopefully we’ll be able to do it again sometime—I would love to go, too!
Coming into the Waikari station:
Coming up to Frog Rock:
The station in Waipara. This used to be the Cheviot railway station!
In places, the train goes through a pretty deep gorge.
There is a turntable at each end, on which the engine is turned around before being hooked up to the other end of the line of cars.
I happened upon this video of the railway. I haven’t watched it all—it’s 57 minutes!—but I watched snatches here and there through it. Beautiful scenery!
I wrote a long review of it for 
This book, which I finished reading a few weeks ago, tells the story of Johann’s son Knals (Cornelius). He was born in Prussia, but grew up in Russia only a short distance from the Crimea. After watching his father’s life, he became a Christian at a fairly young age, and was baptized into the Kleine Gemeinde church—an offshoot of the Old Colony Mennonnites. His strong, forceful personality caused some major problems and heartache in his life, but was also used greatly by God to strengthen the church and aid in the migration of the Mennonites to Canada. His actions were not always right, but his heart was in the right place and eventually he made right what he had done wrong. Both of these books are very inspiring.
In fact, Ready or Not was the first modern Christian novel I have found that I was interested in rereading. For Keeps and Here We Come are just as good. They tell the story of Aggie Milliken, who at age 22, fresh out of college, inherited her sister’s eight children when Allana and her husband suddenly died. Through reading this series of books, I discovered a new favorite author, Chautona Havig. She has let me be on her launch team now when she publishes new books, and since the fourth Aggie book is publishing this month, I reread the first three. They are just as good as I remembered, and every bit as engrossing the second or third time through! This week, I got to read the advance reader copy of the fourth book, 
