Away From Home

Christmas 2021

January 2, 2022 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

For Christmas this year, we decided to go on a picnic at Jim’s Hut, about a half-hour drive east of here, up the Ahaura River. Our boys have been there a lot of times, hunting, and Gayle has been there once, but the rest of us hadn’t seen it yet. I got a picnic ready, and we headed off, in two vehicles. Our van wouldn’t make it up the track, so Simon and Elijah each drove his 4WD. We got almost to the turn-off to Jim’s Hut—and Simon turned off the other way, onto a two-track going into the bush. It turned out, once we got together again and heard the story, that James had heard about this track (at least he thinks it was this one!), and they decided to explore something new! Here we are, following Simon’s Pajero. He wanted to use his kayak in the river, so he had a trailer on behind. These pictures were taken through the windscreen of Elijah’s Rav4, while we were bumping around.

Mudholes don’t faze that truck!

These ruts, however, were a different story. The reason for the blurriness is that we were being thrown around a lot. I think this was a few seconds before we stopped and all piled into the Pajero, leaving the Rav behind. Just ahead, the track got even rougher, with gullies at least two feet deep to navigate. Simon did very well, and the Pajero performed beautifully; I held on tightly!

The end of the line—Simon decided he wouldn’t try going through this creek, because the bank on the other side went up too steeply. The track goes on, but we decided not to walk it this time.

The bush is beautiful back there! I couldn’t possibly record the colors of the ferns, or the cool dampness, or the sound of the rushing water. You’ll just have to imagine!

Simon found a dead tree right away, and his trusty hatchet came in useful. Soon, we were treated to the sight of a tree crashing down into the ravine.

We laid out the picnic on the trailer, and had lunch, then packed up, got turned around, and went back out to the main road.

Finally, we were on the track to Jim’s Hut…and there was a tree across it. Out came the hatchet again!

The Ahaura River in front of Jim’s Hut.

Elijah tried fishing, but when someone is swimming in the same place, it doesn’t work very well. Several of the boys ended up swimming across the river and back.

The boys often take this cage across the river.Some of us walked down to Jim’s Flat. It’s an open meadow surrounded by thick bush.

Looking upstream, to the mouth of the Ahaura Gorge…

…and downstream.

The girls wanted a ride over the river in the cage, so Simon and James obliged.

The kayak made a couple of trips up the gorge.

One more picture… I took this on our way out, going from home toward the mountains. Notice the bales of hay? Whoever mowed the roadsides baled it, too!

Celebrating Simon

December 26, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Simon recently completed his apprenticeship, and is now a fully-qualified mechanic. His boss put on a party this week to celebrate. I had been thinking about doing it myself, but the boss wanted to combine it with an end-of-year party, so that worked out well. The family who run the workshop where Simon works did most of the work for the party, although we had it at another friend’s house. These people have an outdoor pizza oven, so pizza was the main course of the meal. A number of people helped get the pizzas ready to go in the oven. The owner had built a fire in the oven earlier in the day, and then scraped the fire out when it was time to bake the pizzas.

One of the boss’s daughters made the Land Rover pinata, and Elijah bought a race car pinata in town. There was plenty of candy!

They had a lot of fun with the drinks! I didn’t get any pictures of the dessert bar, but the idea was to build your own car, with pink wafers for panels, oreo cookies for wheels, jello for grease, different colors of custard for paint, and other bits and pieces, like nuts and bolts made out of chocolate. There was also ice cream. Some people got very creative, but it didn’t occur to me to take a picture till all the creations had been eaten.

The children had a lot of fun, hopping around in feed sacks while the older children played soccer. Some of them tried to hop up this steep bank to the house with their feet in a feed sack!

Simon has these two certificates as a record of his accomplishment.

It was a great evening, with lots of talking and laughing (and good food!), as well as a time when anyone who wanted to give Simon some encouragement could stand up and give a speech.

Mount George

December 19, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Last Sunday, we went to Punakaiki to have Thanksgiving Dinner (a few weeks late due to unavoidable changes in plans) with some friends. Esther and I and the little girls went early to get the turkeys cooking and spend the afternoon hanging out with our friends, and Gayle and the boys came later. On the way, they climbed Mount George. There is a track going off the main highway, but the beginning of it is rather obscured. Only locals know where it is, for the most part. Some of our boys climbed it a couple of years ago, and have wanted to go back, ever since. This time, both Simon and Elijah took a bunch of pictures with their phones, and let me have them. I’ll see if I can combine the photos in an order that makes sense.

This first one is a panorama that Elijah took from the top. What a view! It was quite foggy, but cleared a bit for a few of these shots.

On top the mountain! The bits of white near Gayle’s head are the surf breaking on the shore of the Tasman Sea.

Mr. Imagination

Elijah taking a picture…

…of Simon taking a picture of him!

Mr. Sweetie decided to climb up a cliff.

This part of the track looks doable to me.

See the bit of road off in the distance? Mom, you have been on that road, when we drove from Pancake Rocks to Greymouth, on our West Coast trip seven years ago.

This part of the track, on the other hand, looks, to say the least, challenging to me. The phone was pointing straight down to take this one.

Apparently, it’s easiest to back down this section!

Climbing a mountain is on my bucket list for someday. I hope to give Mount George a try. Someday, when I no longer have tiny children and pregnancies to deal with! In the meantime, I’m thankful that my boys can have experiences like this, and bring back pictures to show me.

November 2021 Photos

December 5, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Can you believe it’s December already? Here are the last of our photos from November.

The first weekend of the month, on Mr. Diligence’s birthday, we drove across the mountains to attend a friend’s 21st birthday party. Mr. Diligence turned 16, so I’ll start calling him by his name, James. He is excited to be working full-time, and, Lord willing, will be starting an apprenticeship in the new year. Anyway, this picture was taken on the way over. The boys in the back of the van thought they were tired! James is on the bottom, with Mr. Imagination to the left and Mr. Sweetie on the right. Now, of course, since James has his license, you won’t catch him in the back—at least willingly!

This was taken that evening. After we sang Happy Birthday to the 21-year-old, her mother cut a slice of cake and put a candle on it for James, and we sang for him.

This may actually have been taken in September or October—I’m not sure. I just found it on Gayle’s phone recently. It was taken in Waikari, near the church we attend when we’re over there. Near the church is a public restroom, and these concrete sheep are in front of it.

Mr. Sweetie went with Gayle and some friends to the sea one day, and Gayle took this picture of him.

Someone found a crab that day.

Simon often picks up vehicles for his boss. This was a day he had driven an hour to pick up a farm vehicle to be fixed, and stopped by home for a few minutes before taking it to the workshop.

Elijah was laying on the couch reading one evening when Princess decided he would make a perfect place for a nap!

Elijah saw this pretty flower when he was doing a job in Westport one day, and took a picture to show me. It sure brightens up an otherwise uninspiring fence!

Science and Carpets

November 28, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I started going through a new science textbook with my three schoolchildren in October (sure seems strange to only have three in school! Technically, there are four, but Mr. Diligence is now working almost all the time, since he turned 16.). We are working through Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics, from Apologia. I’m finding it quite interesting. I think I may have done some chemistry in high school, but I really don’t remember for sure—and if I did, I don’t remember it! The children are struggling to understand what we’re learning and to enjoy it, but they love the experiments!

This experiment was to show how substances of different densities react. We mixed differing amounts of salt into these cups of water, and then put some into a straw. It was a lot of fun to figure out how to do this.

One jar held salt water, the other plain water—the egg floated in one of them.

What things float and what things sink?

Each of the children got to fashion a boat from a piece of foil. Which ones would hold up the most coins?

Mr. Sweetie was the winner! He shaped his foil over a bowl.

Elijah is enjoying his apprenticeship as a floor layer. One job he did a couple of weeks ago was to lay carpet tiles in the dining room/lobby of a seven-story hotel in Greymouth. He was given this diagram to follow. It is supposed to symbolize the Grey River, the sea, and the mountains. I was in town several days later, while he was working on the upper floors, and stopped in so I could see this amazing floor. It was still under plastic to protect it while renovations continue, but even so I could tell it is beautiful!

Here is a picture Elijah took from an upper floor. What a view! That is the Grey River, emptying into the sea in the distance.

Windy Point

November 7, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We made a quick trip to Canterbury yesterday for a friend’s 21st birthday celebration. She invited us in January and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since! It was originally scheduled for September, but lockdown happened. We were delighted to be able to attend now! We didn’t have a deadline for arriving, so decided to have a more relaxed trip than usual. We left late in the morning, and packed a picnic lunch. We stopped at Windy Point, a DOC site, the jumping-off point for a series of tracks through the high country. Three years ago, Gayle and the boys had gone backpacking through there. After we ate lunch, on this beautifully sunny, warm day, we walked out to the first swing bridge, which is really almost the trailhead. The views were spectacular!

The boys love the challenge of walking across the bridge without touching the wires with their hands. I’m not sure how many, if any, of them accomplished it. That bridge really swings and bounces! I didn’t even try to walk that way. In fact, I didn’t look down or around at the scenery. I looked straight ahead.

Elijah took this video with his phone as he went back across. It doesn’t even begin to show the grandeur of the setting, but you can get a tiny glimpse.

Esther tried to do a photo shoot with Miss Joy on the way back. Mr. Diligent photo bombed her! He decided the two of them needed to wear his shoes on their heads! He carried those shoes all the way from the van, and then back again, rather than wearing them. Goofy boy!

Eventually, she decided to cover her smile!

Miss Joy did not appreciate the way Simon carried her!

She decided to walk by herself, instead.

Trip to Nelson

October 24, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The first weekend of October, we went to Nelson on an overnight trip to visit friends. We were planning to go to a wedding, but because of Level 2 lockdown, only Esther was able to go. We decided to go just to see people, though. We went up there on a Saturday morning, and it was a beautiful day! This has been a very wet year on the Coast, so we thoroughly enjoyed seeing sunshine. We had to stop a few times because of carsick tummies, which made it a longer trip than it would have needed to be, but that gave the boys time to enjoy a creek along the road. Elijah took these pictures on his phone.

A little farther on, I took this picture as we went over the Hope Saddle. The mountains were so gorgeous that day!

We spent that afternoon with a family we got to know in Kaikoura the first few years we were in New Zealand. It was great to reconnect with them! They live at a Christian camp, where he is the cook, so our boys had great fun all afternoon using the obstacle course and other equipment there. Sunday morning we had an open-air meeting with several families on top of a hill on a farm, and then we went into Nelson to meet another old friend from Cheviot. After spending a couple of hours with her, we went to her church, and then drove the 3+ hours home. We were all very tired, but it was great to catch up with so many people.

Jim’s Flat Area

September 5, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, our older boys announced they wanted to take us to see the area in which they have been hunting possums occasionally this winter. We got home from church about halfway through the afternoon, and quickly took off up the road to the east out of town. When we got to the track that leads to Jim’s Flat, we turned off the main road. The boys wanted us to see the hut and the cage that goes across the river at Jim’s Flat. However, when we got about halfway there, Simon, who was driving, suddenly pulled off and stopped. He had found a walking track, which they had been looking for for some time. (It doesn’t work very well to find a poorly-marked track in the dark!) We decided to walk along this track and see if we could find a hut someone had told them about. The track turned out to be easy to follow. It looked like it was probably a bush railway line at one point, likely when the area was logged a hundred years ago or more. It is straight and fairly level, and built up a little from the surrounding terrain in most places. There are a few very muddy places, but we discovered that if we walked right in the middle of them, the ground was firmer than at the edges! The biggest problem we had was that a few years ago, a lot of trees had fallen down across the track. It was likely the cyclone we had in February 2018, right after we moved here. Someone had gone through with a chain saw and cleared enough of the track that we could get through. A couple of those spots the trees were so thick that we pretty much went through a tunnel! We never did find the hut. We think we got close to it, but we were in danger of losing daylight and being stuck out in the bush for the night, so turned around. It was a great walk, though! We all thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s wonderful to have older sons who love to take the family on an adventure.

Did you notice the moss and ferns? They are very typical of the bush around here. We get plenty of water!

Here are a couple of photos Gayle took at Jim’s Hut the first time they went there, in early July. This cage on a cable goes across the Ahaura River. The boys usually take it across the river to go hunting possums. Apparently it’s really exciting when the river is in flood! I’m not anxious for a ride on it myself.

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.