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Away From Home

Kiwi Chick, Blackball, Brunner Mine

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We packed a lot into the last Saturday of my brother’s visit. All the males from our house went four wheel driving that day. I haven’t gotten any pictures from that trip, so I can’t share anything, but we ladies had a fun day. That morning a friend texted me that there was an open day at the Kiwi Creche across the river from us at Atarau. The people in charge of kiwis on the Coast collect eggs from wild birds, take them to Christchurch to be incubated, and then bring them back here when the chicks are a month or two old. They have a large area carefully fenced so that predators cannot get in, and they keep the young kiwis safely there so that they can learn to care for themselves and grow enough that stoats and weasels can’t harm them. One was to be released into that area that day, so we rearranged our plans quickly and went.

Before we got to see the baby kiwi, we listened to a talk about what the group does, and got to hold a real kiwi egg that had failed to hatch.

We watched the woman in charge weighing and measuring the baby, and then she carried it around the circle so that everyone could have a close-up look at it. After that, she tucked it into a hollow stump and covered the opening with ferns; kiwis are nocturnal.

We enjoyed seeing these water lilies. The kiwi creche is accessed through the grounds of a lodge, and it is gorgeous!

After leaving the Kiwi Creche, we had a picnic at a roadside table, and then drove to Blackball to have a look around. I had never been there before, so it was interesting to see a new area. On the far side of Blackball, we stumbled across the Blackball Mine, where coal was mined for a number of years before and after 1900. There were a lot of ruins there, and what looked like a great track to hike. We didn’t have time for that, though; Esther had started bread and needed to get home to get it out of the fridge and baked.

On Tuesday, I took the three youngest children, Mom and my brother to Greymouth. It was their last day, and with Esther and Joe in the Christchurch hospital, I wanted a distraction for everyone. We did a little fun shopping (fun for the ladies; the men went along with us). Then, we had lunch at the breakwall and watched a fishing boat go out.

Then, we went to the Brunner Mine at Stillwater and enjoyed the river and the ruins there. The paths and signs have been greatly improved since I was last there in 2018. We all enjoyed this one last fun thing before Mom and my brother left.

Pancake Rocks

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On the last Sunday my mom and brother were here, near the end of February, we took them to Pancake Rocks. Of course, Mom has been there before, but my brother hadn’t. We stopped at a picnic spot in the Buller Gorge for a picnic lunch, and after they ate, most of the group went down to the river for a few minutes.

Simon took a plate with him, to try his hand at panning gold. Are those flecks gold… or mica?

The weather was perfect for walking the track around Dolomite Point to see the blowholes.

And, there was a pretty good show! We were grateful that we could share that spectacle with my brother.

When we finished there, most of the family went to Punakaiki Caverns. Three of us were not interested in getting muddy, so we drove to the mouth of the Punakaiki River, instead, and walked on the beach.

Notice the gathering of seagulls?

It was a wonderful day–and as it turned out, the last day that Joe could walk for a long, long time. More about that in a later post.

Jim’s Hut

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Near the end of Mom and my brother’s time here, we took them to Jim’s Hut, a spot in the bush up the river, about half an hour’s drive from us. We took two four wheel drive trucks (this was before diesel prices went through the roof!), and packed a picnic lunch.

We ate lunch on the porch of the hut, overlooking the Ahaura River. What a lovely, peaceful spot!

The boys took their uncle across the river in the cage.

After lunch, we drove back the track to where we could walk to Hamer’s Flat. I had never been down that track, so I enjoyed seeing the trees and ferns–even though it started raining and we got quite wet!

Simon stayed behind the others to keep me in sight, and stopped every time he got to a sheltered spot, to wait for me.

Mom stayed at the vehicles, so I took pictures and brought back samples of a lot of the ferns I found, to show her.

Hamer’s Flat. This was used for cattle grazing until the late 1990s.

The hut was where people slept and ate when they were caring for their cattle. It is in pretty rough shape now. Apparently, the track used to be drivable! It has slipped away a lot by now, and there is no way to drive it at this point.

Heading back up the track from the flat. I didn’t stay in that position in the line for very long! All the younger people move much faster than I do.

This picture is near the head of the track, where it is still in good shape.

After we got home, Mom tried to identify the fern specimens I brought her.

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.