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Away From Home

Franz Josef

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While my brother was here, my children took him and Mom to the Glaciers, a few hour’s drive south of us. Fox Glacier is now inaccessible because roads washed out, but they walked as close as they could to Franz Josef, and explored some other places around there, too. On the way down there, they stopped at a historical site in Ross, where Joe found himself in the pillary.

They also stopped in Hari Hari to explore the mosaic garden, which is full of memorials for various people.

They walked to where they could see the glacier.

A rescue was in progress; someone had slipped and gotten hurt in the river bed.

They had rented a small cabin for the night. It had a kitchen, so meals were eaten there, and five people slept in it. The others pitched a tent.

At dark, several of them went to look at glowworms. For obvious reasons, it was difficult to take pictures of the worms!

In the morning, they did some more walking before heading for home. I’m not sure where this is, but somewhere near Franz Josef.

The last stop on the way home was at a beach near Greymouth.

Church Picnic and Coal Mine

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The first Sunday my brother was here, in mid-February, we were finally able to have the church picnic that had been proposed about a month earlier. We gathered at the Inangahua Swing Bridge for the picnic. The children had great fun playing at the edge of the river and on the bridge. Several hardy folks, including two of my boys, jumped from the bridge into the deep water underneath. I walked across, braving the swinging and swaying that is inevitable when several children are on it, and was amused at the warning sign at the far end.

Later in the afternoon, one of the church men took us to tour the coal mine that is up in the mountains above his dairy farm. We toured that mine several years ago, but Gayle had never been there, and we knew Mom and my brother would be interested. Because it was a weekend and the mine was not in operation, we got to drive all the way to the bottom of the pit.

Napoleon Hill

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While my brother was here, the boys took him on a four wheel drive trip over Napoleon Hill, which is only a few miles east of us. In the 1860s, there was a thriving town there–apparently until the gold ran out! I believe there was some lumbering there, as well, but the town didn’t last very long. I spent some time one evening researching the town, but couldn’t find much information. This picture is in the front of a book we have titled Westland’s Golden Century 1860-1960; it seems to be the only picture in existence of the small town.

I do not enjoy four wheel driving, but I decided to go along this time, since my entire family, plus Mom and my brother, were going. We took two vehicles: James’s Mitsubishi Pajero, and the Land Rover that Simon had just finished fixing. Some friends went along as well, with their two vehicles–a Land Cruiser and the Nissan Safari that Simon had restored and then sold to his friend. It was quite an adventure! I’ll let the pictures tell the story, for the most part. This first picture shows the house where the people live who maintain the track. They collect a small fee from each vehicle that goes on the track. The waterwheel generates their electricity.

This is a side track that apparently must be attempted each time. James only went downhill, but Simon and his friend both had to go up it, as well. This is Simon going up in the Land Rover.

Going downhill on another side track. The Safari went first, then the Land Rover, and then the Pajero. Simon stood in the track to direct James in driving the Pajero down. I was in that one. These gullies were terrifying enough going down….

When we reached this mudhole, we found the Safari stuck in the mud. Simon pulled him out, and then he went right back in…and got out on his own that time.

After awhile we came out into an open meadow, and climbed to a plateau above it for a lunch break.

Then, we had to go back up the rutted area.

At this point, I climbed out and walked around to the top of that area. I couldn’t handle seeing it, let alone being inside!

This is the Pajero, which I had just vacated.

Somewhere at the top of the hill is the Napoleon cemetery, virtually the only trace left of the town. There is a fence around the area, and a few grave mounds still visible.

We finally made it down to the level of the creek, and drove in the water for a long time.

A waterfall provided a car wash. There was so much mud on the windscreen by that time that a clean was quite welcome!

Shortly before reaching the river, we drove through two tunnels.

After going through the tunnels, the Pajero went home. Mr. Imagination had to do his paper run, and I was finished. The other three vehicles, however, stayed there to go through a number of mud holes. And get stuck. And get pulled out. And get stuck again.

I put together a couple of movies of the trip, using video clips taken by me, Esther, and Gayle.

Arthurs Pass

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A couple of days after my brother arrived, Esther took him and several of the children to Arthurs Pass for the day, to walk a number of tracks. I thought I would go, but that morning I turned my ankle. I’ve done that a lot of times, and while it wasn’t bad enough that I couldn’t walk, I knew it would get a lot worse if I did a lot of walking. So, I stayed home with Mom and Mr. Imagination, who didn’t want to pay anyone to do his paper run.

I let Little Miss take my camera along, and she had fun taking pictures. I tried to pick out the best here. They walked to the Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall, the Avalanche Creek Waterfall, and up the Bealey Valley Track.

Somewhere in the tops they found a patch of sundew plants! I’ve never actually seen these carnivorous plants in person. They are tiny, about three inches tall. The red flowers are apparently part of them, too.

Everyone looks for unusual mushrooms for Grandma!

Nelson Creek and Croquet

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My youngest brother came in early February to spend two weeks with us, returning home with Mom when she went. It was wonderful to get to know him! He is enough younger than me that he was only four years old when I left home, and I never really knew him. We did a lot while he was here! We let him rest on the first day, and the next day took him to Nelson Creek for a picnic lunch. Mom had been wanting to go there ever since she arrived, and we never made it, so it finally happened. We ate lunch and then went across the swing bridge to walk the tracks through the bush.

I found this little garden on a log and thought it was beautiful. These plants are about an inch tall at most.

There were cicadas everywhere! The noise was so loud it was hard to hear each other talk at times. A funny thing I noticed? When I said the sound “s” I couldn’t hear it; the sound of the cicadas drowned it out!

I believe it was that same evening that someone called us to say that the old church in Ngahere was on the move, and would be going past our house after awhile! The building had been bought by someone from Arahura, near Hokitika, and after about three years it was finally being moved there. We wanted to watch it go past, so we went to the park across the road and played croquet while we waited. Such a fun evening! The first person had just gotten around the course and won when the church came into sight.

Hokitika

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One Sunday in January we couldn’t get through to Reefton where we have been attending a small Baptist church. There were some culverts that had to be replaced in the road, and because of the narrow valley at that spot it was not possible to create a detour. The only way to get to Reefton from here on that Sunday and Monday would have been to drive to Greymouth, up the Coast Road to Westport, through the Buller Gorge to Inangahua, then to Reefton–a 3-hour drive rather than our normal 30 minutes. We decided to go somewhere else for church! We chose a small Church of Christ in Hokitika (an hour away), and packed a picnic lunch. One person in the family was deep in a conversation when almost everyone else had left church, so we filled our car and part of the family went to locate a place to eat our picnic. While we were waiting, the girls played in a very unusual pohutukawa tree with aerial roots, and we investigated a cannon. Elijah studied it, found a number of markings and formulated a hypothesis about how those markings were used for aiming the cannon, then looked it up online to see if he was right. He was–partly!

We also enjoyed the view up and down the Hokitika River–what a gorgeous day!

After the rest of the family joined us, we ate our lunch, then drove back through town a little way to a wood-chopping competition we had seen. A man who works with Simon was there, but we didn’t quite stay long enough to see him chop. On the way, Mom wanted a picture of this clock tower in the center of town.

These men are sawing through logs.

These 13-15-year-old boys were chopping through logs; each one had an older man coaching him.

After watching the wood-chopping for awhile, we went out to the beach. First, we stopped at the sign made of driftwood (probably the most-photographed item in the area!).

Then, we walked down the beach to the end, at the mouth of the Hokitika River, to check out the driftwood sculpture contest that was being held.

The titles given to the sculptures were very entertaining. This one is “In the Moment,” although we’re not sure what that was supposed to mean.

Pardon the language on this next sign. We sympathize with the sentiment, however–wekas are a major problem for gardens in this region. Can you see the “weka” digging up the garden (just behind the right-hand label)?

This one is “Questionable Pet.” Most of us agreed that this was our favorite.

Burl-o-pus

When I see creations like these, I marvel again at the creativity God has built into every person on earth–I love it, even though I didn’t like some of the ideas expressed.

December 2026 Photos

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Here are the rest of December’s photos! For some reason, we end up with a lot of pictures of Princess. One would think she’s a popular pet?

My animal-lover was delighted to find this hedgehog in the garden one afternoon. We told her she had to put it back out there, so the little girls found it a lot of slugs and watched delightedly as it slurped them down.

Jenga blocks rarely get used for the game….

We enjoyed watching the birds on the flax blossoms, as usual in the spring.

Our summer holiday project this year was to replace the lower part of the garage wall in the carport. It was pretty rotten. They ripped off the old weatherboards and dug out a trench for a footer, after propping up the roof. When they were digging, they broke into a cave we didn’t know about, which, at some time in the past, had been formed under the floor of the garage! We don’t know for sure what the purpose was, but based on some paraphernalia found in the attic of the garage when we moved here we have some suspicions. It is filled in now.

The carport was quite a mess for awhile. It was a good thing we didn’t have much rain for that time! I hang laundry in there when it rains.

The flower garden before it turned into a jungle!

This was one of our favorite visitors to the flax–a tui!

Another hatch of chicks. We’ve had very good percentages with the last two hatches–so fun!

One evening, we went to the Domain for a cookout with Elijah’s LandSAR group. One woman brought these balls on strings, and taught Maria how to swing them rhythmically. It’s a Maori game.

We’ve done a number of puzzles with Grandma; this was the first.

The girls created this one afternoon on their bedroom floor with thumbtacks!

We end up with a lot of photos of the birds, too. They are also popular pets.

Half-grown chicks–I think this was the batch in the incubator in the earlier picture.

One Saturday just before Christmas, the boys went on an overnight kayak trip on the Ahaura River. They started in the Haupiri, which flows into the Ahaura, and ended at Jim’s Hut. James met them there with their food and camping gear (he couldn’t go on the water because of a badly-cut hand), and they all spent the night. They had planned to kayak the rest of the way to Ahaura on Sunday morning, but decided instead to load up and come out for church, which decision I was quite happy with. Mr. Imagination found this beetle at the hut.

The river just below Jim’s Hut.

Tramp to Cone Creek

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A couple of years ago, our boys heard a rumor that a hut they had tramped to twice had burned down. They were rather unhappy with this news, since it was a pretty nice hut. Elijah decided he wanted to know for sure whether it had burned or was still standing, and planned a tramp awhile back to find out. Other things came up and the tramp had to be canceled; this happened at least once, if not a couple of times. Finally, sometime in December, he and his two younger brothers were able to go up there and find out. They did just an overnight tramp, leaving late one morning and returning the next afternoon. This first one is a fungus on a tree next to the creek–I’ve never seen such a thing!

A creek partway up the track.

A blue duck, an endangered native species. Both of the pair are in the second picture.

The hut is still standing!

The track to the Lake Morgan hut is up the scree slope in the middle of this picture.

The blue ducks again, this time when the boys were on the way out.

The younger boys made these signs from scraps they found at the hut and posted them at the junction of two tracks.

Returning to the main track from the hot pools, which were across the river.

Baptisms

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We had the joy yesterday of seeing two of our children baptized! Both Mr. Imagination and Little Miss made that decision on the same day not long ago. Gayle led the service; we sang four songs, he gave a message about baptism, then the children each shared a brief testimony, and he baptized them. After they came out of the water, Gayle invited everyone to gather around and pray for them. Afterward, a person who was coming down to swim came up to us and offered to send us some pictures she took. That gave us a brief opportunity to talk to her about the Lord!

Here is a video I got of the baptism. The sun was so bright I couldn’t see the screen of my phone, so it isn’t the best, but you can hear a lot of it anyway.