Away From Home

Simon’s House

August 1, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Simon bought a house almost a year ago. I’ve been intending to post pictures of it ever since… finally, here they are! Sorry for the delay, Mom—I know you’ve been curious about what his place looks like. Most of these are pictures James took in the summer. This is the view from the road, up to his garage. His house is on the right; on the other side of the house to the left is the garage where Simon works.

The chimney on the side of the house is gone now. The boys spent a couple of days in June bashing it out. They needed to get rid of it in order to replace a beam under the house there.

To enter the house, you use the back door. This is the mudroom, with the laundry straight ahead. To the right is the kitchen door, and then the door into the toilet and bathroom.

As you can see, the bathroom is pretty rough. The entire house needs to be redone.

This is the kitchen and living area. The stove is very good at heating the house, and the appliances work. The sink tap, however, does not.

There are three smallish bedrooms.

The enclosed porch faces the road, and is accessed through a bedroom.Inside the garage. That is Simon’s Austin on the left. He stored his tractor there until it was needed here this winter for feeding cows. The white thing on the right, closest to the camera, is a Land Cruiser in pieces, I believe. (Another project!)

Another Land Cruiser Simon dreams of restoring. It’s stored in what used to be the chicken house.

Simon has a lot of fruit; these are his blueberries.

The view from the hillside above the house. That’s Simon and Mr. Sweetie mowing lawn, and Little Miss was checking out the raspberry bushes.I went over in June to take a few pictures one rainy Sunday afternoon. This is the house from the road. Simon stores his extra vehicles there!

The backyard, looking up at his orchard.

Enough furniture has been donated to outfit the house a couple of times! I’m not sure what Simon will do with it all when he comes to gutting the house.

Simon was pleased to be able to bring two of his geese over from Canterbury. They mow the lawn for him.

This is the biggest project Simon has undertaken yet. He’s working on replacing the piles under the house right now, as a first step in renovation. He needed to level the house before starting on anything else. I think they have two out of eight “bearers” repiled so far.

Flooding

July 18, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Three weeks ago, while Gayle and I and the five youngest children were in Canterbury for the weekend, there was a lot of rain over here. That Saturday, our three oldest drove down to the river in Simon’s 4WD Pajero to check out the flooding, and Esther took pictures and a video. Little did we know that this weekend would be even worse! I would guess that the flood waters were about twice as high. We never got any pictures this time, though; we stayed inside while it was pouring for several days! Simon had planned to work on the piles under his house on Friday, but as fast as he scooped the water out of the holes it flowed back in! A lot of roads were closed with slips, and the road from here to Greymouth was closed for a day and a half because of flooding. The rain stopped last night, and already today when we went to church the Ahaura River had gone down quite a lot. It’s still as high as I’ve ever seen it!

This is Orwell Creek. This weekend, the water was over a foot deep on the road here!

That’s the Ahaura River ahead, in the gap between the trees. This is normally a parking area.

The nearer bridge is the old one, which by now is completely gone. The other is the new one.

This morning, the water was still up over that spot where the pipes are! This afternoon it had gone down to where the gravel is.Here is a video Esther made of the flooding. The first two clips are from driving along Orwell Creek, both going toward the river and coming back, and then some from crossing the bridge. The road along Orwell Creek is where we walk when we go to the riverbed for picnics.

The Ahaura Bridge—Old and New!

July 11, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When we moved to Ahuara three years ago, the only way out of the township to the south was by way of an old one-lane bridge. This bridge was also the most outstanding feature of our little village—if we were trying to describe where we lived to people, we would say, “The town with the long one-lane bridge!” Almost anyone who drove through here would remember it. We soon started hearing rumors, though, that we would be getting a new bridge sometime. It took another two years before work was started, but in January or February 2020, we saw the beginnings of a bridge just downstream from the old one. Lockdown slowed the work a bit, but by the end of this summer, it started looking possible that the new one would open soon! We first heard that it would open in April…then May. Weather delayed it some, and a rafting accident which took the life of a local man delayed it more. Finally, the date was set: the grand opening would be on the 12th of June! (Most of us drove over it a week and a half before that; because some paving had to be done on the approach on this side, traffic was diverted from the old bridge over the new one for a day, although we only used one lane.) A few of our boys decided they didn’t care about the opening, and went to town to get supplies for Simon’s house, but most of our family went. After the speeches in the township hall, the crowd of about 200 people walked down to the new bridge. The local school children sang a few songs in Maori,

the Mayor (in the green coat) cut the ribbon with the biggest pair of scissors I’ve ever seen, and the first three vehicles ceremoniously drove across. (Two of the vehicles were school buses, with the children on board.)

Then, the bridge was opened for walkers. We enjoyed walking across and back on the roadway! There is a pedestrian lane on one side; we decided to walk on the other, since we’ll never be able to again!

Looking downstream at the rail bridge.

Looking upstream at the old bridge. See the horse going across, about in the center? The woman who rides him said she often rode him across, but she won’t be going over the new bridge, with its two-way traffic. She took advantage of the last hour that the bridge was open. After we went home, the old bridge was closed and the new one opened. The last vehicle to cross the old bridge was driven by descendants of the woman who was the first to cross it when it was opened in 1929 (they won the bidding for the privilege!). We thoroughly enjoyed the chance to cross the new bridge on the day it opened, and we enjoyed the sunshine, too! Within an hour after we went home, the rain closed in again.

A few days before the new bridge opened, our children and some visitors ran across the old bridge. Esther had always wanted to cross it on foot, and this was the last chance. See the condition it was in? It needed either replacement or a lot of renovations. It’s a little sad to see a landmark disappear, though.

Timaru 2021!

June 13, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We were very happy to be able to go to Easter Conference in Timaru this year, after it had to be canceled last year due to the Covid lockdown. This first set of pictures shows what the young people did on Saturday morning. Gayle went along, and they all walked to a lighthouse. I stayed behind to help prepare lunch and tidy the house for the evening’s gathering.

Of course, skipping stones was part of the fun. Having waves rolling in from two directions made it harder than in a river, though!

They found an outboard motor washed up on the beach. Our boys carried it back to the vehicle, strapped it on the roof racks, and brought it home!

Sunday evening we had a sing to wrap up the weekend. One of the men there took these pictures of Miss Joy joining in the singing and sent this to me. She had turned the wooden box in which the songbooks are stored upside down, and used it as a seat. Little Miss is in front of her, on the left of the picture; to the right is a little girl her age; the two girls spent a lot of time playing together over the weekend.We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend in Timaru—two years is a long time between conferences! Thank you, friends from Timaru, for putting the conference on again.

4WD Excursion Up the Snowy River

May 30, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Gayle, Esther, and all our boys went with a number of other people from our church on a drive along a rough track up the Snowy River. The road along this river comes out on the main road about 20 minutes’ drive north of us. They went up that road to the end, where they had morning tea at a farm, and then took the track a couple of kilometers into the bush to a former gold-mining area—the Alexander’s mine and gold stamping mill. Here is some of the scenery on the way to the farm.

Mr. Sweetie gesticulating about something at the farm. (Notice his new glasses, Grandma?)

The center vehicle is Simon’s Pajero. The one in front is his boss’s Land Cruiser, affectionately known as the Troopie (because it’s a troop carrier). My family has been talking about the electric system for this farm ever since they got home. They generate their own power with a water turbine. The power is taken to the buildings with a single Number 8 wire, and most of the year they have to leave the lights on all the time so they don’t burn out the system, because they have too much power!

The first river crossing!

The Troopie has made it across; will the Pajero and the other Land Cruiser make it?

Simon hooking up a snatch strap so the Troopie can help him get up the muddy bank. He says the water was icy.

Checking out the ruts the Pajero made. The bank was apparently about three feet high before the Troopie went up it, and then the Pajero smashed it down some, too.

Eating lunch.

A tree was across the track—it’s a good thing someone had a chain saw along!

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The old stamping mill at the end of the track. They used to use some sort of cyanide treatment to extract the gold. Here is a video I took several years ago of a stamping mill that can still be used; it will give you a bit of an idea how they worked.

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Back out at the road!

The vehicles emerged not much the worse for wear. The Troopie had no damage. The other Cruiser had some, and Simon lost a bit of trim from the sill under his door. They were pretty muddy when they got home, but that was the worst. Simon is hoping to do this kind of thing a bit more often, now that he has a vehicle for it.

Here is a video we put together from clips that Esther took of the river crossings:

A Day at the River

May 23, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Some friends from Dunedin came for a visit on a weekend in March. We took them down to the riverbed for a picnic. It was a perfect late-summer day, and the children enjoyed playing in the water, as usual.

It was a wonderful day!

Antarctic Centre

May 9, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

In early March, we had the chance to go to the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch with the homeschool group we used to be part of. One of the moms from the group organized special rates for us. Gayle and I took the youngest five children and had a fun tour.

We started with a Hagglund ride. Miss Joy is too young to go on this ride, so Gayle took care of her while I went with the other children. About ten years ago when we went the other time, I stayed back from the Hagglund with the current baby, so this time I enjoyed getting to experience it.

Here are two of the other Hagglunds. They are used for exploration in Antarctica, and can go over incredibly rough terrain. They are watertight and very strong!

This was one of the obstacles we went over on the 15-minute ride. It was a very steep hill.

This is the other Hagglund that took part of our group.

We drove over these logs. They are intended to represent broken-up sea ice.

This was another very steep hill, with large boulders in the water at the bottom.

The other Hagglund going through the water.

Just before we went into the 4D theater, Gayle had the children pose here.

This was the highlight of the day for some of the children—the cold room! It is kept below freezing, and then they started a storm. The wind whipped up, and the temperature stopped dropping. It got down to about 0°F for a few minutes.

Tramp to Elizabeth Hut

April 25, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the middle of February, Gayle and all five of the boys went on a tramp to Elizabeth Hut, in the mountains to the south of us, with several other men and children from our church. I stayed home with the girls, and with the help of a neighbor, did the milking. Mr. Diligence took his camera along and took these photos. Here they are getting ready to head out. Simon is in the center, and Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination to the right in the photo.

They tramped up a river valley.

These little fish were found trapped in some puddles that were drying up.

This is a hot spring partway up to the hut. At some point in the past, someone made a concrete pool, but it’s in bad shape now.

Inside the hut! There are only six bunks, so the men got those and most of the young boys spread their sleeping bags on the floor.

They headed back the next morning. Soon after setting out on the 4-5 hour tramp, Simon twisted his ankle, and just kept going. He could hardly hobble by the time they got out, and didn’t walk on his foot again for a few days.

They all thoroughly enjoyed this tramp, and want to do it again!

January 2021 Photos

April 18, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had a lot of things going on in January after we got home! Gayle decided to paint the garage roof. He went over all the rusty places with a wire brush, and then painted them with something to stop the rust. He got two coats of paint put on all those places, and one coat on the rest.

Little Miss turned six in January! She was delighted to have a birthday! We had chocolate cake and lime ice cream for dessert.

Esther stripped our dining table and refinished it with teak oil. It’s pretty now!

We were given a deer! It was a huge red deer stag, and we got 39 kilos of meat off it. What a blessing!

Mr. Imagination put a bowlful of meat through the mincer.

Then, Simon took over and put a lot more through, faster!

The boys fried up some of the meat immediately, and pronounced it delicious!

Simon was doing exercises for awhile to strengthen his knees. One evening, he tried pushups with a load on his back!

Baby turkeys!

An apple tree at Simon’s house. I still haven’t gotten over there with a camera, and now the house is full of furniture, being stored till it’s needed by other people.

Esther took some friends to see the old dredge at Ngahere one rainy day.

They also went down to our picnic spot by the river. Near the end of a week of torrential rains, this is what it looked like!

Later that week, also on a rainy day, we took some other friends to Shantytown, a historic village. We got to the school in between lessons on using old-style pens, but with the supplies laying out on the desks, we figured out how to use them.

More exercises!

Elijah spent a few months building himself a desk (he finished it just when he quit school to start his apprenticeship!).

This was our second picking of cucumbers. The next four weeks or so, I got twice this many each week.

Our salad one evening. Mr. Imagination and Little Miss decorated it for us!

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From Haast Pass to Home

March 31, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On Day 12 of our big trip in December and January, we made it home! The trip was wonderful, we really enjoyed it, we saw amazing scenery and we spent time with many wonderful people—but it was time to get home. We packed up that morning in the DOC campground not too far from Haast Pass, on the West Coast side of the mountains, and then headed for the coast. It was clear and sunny that morning, and we enjoyed the amazing views of the mountains and rivers as we drove. Here we were, packing up the vans for the last time. We had put the fruit we brought on top of Simon’s van in case possums would come around during the night. We put the laundry up there, too.

When we reached the coast, it got foggy for awhile. I think this is the mouth of the Haast River.

This is Bruce Bay, if I remember right.

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Another river—I don’t remember which one.

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We drove up to the carpark for Franz Joseph Glacier. We ate lunch there, in the vans, because it started pouring. We had talked about walking up to the glacier, but because it was raining so hard we viewed it from the carpark and left again.

It rained off and on till after we went through Hokitika—see the rain coming down in the distance? We made a stop for fuel, but otherwise just kept on driving, and in the end we were glad we hadn’t stopped anywhere, because it took long enough to get home as it was.

Away From Home

Thank you!