Away From Home

January 2017 Pictures

February 11, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Soon after the young turkeys were released into the paddock, a bunch of them got out into the yard and congregated here.

Right after Christmas I started a bunch of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli seeds, and New Year’s weekend got them into potting soil. Now, they are in the garden and growing fast. I’m hoping for a decent fall/winter harvest this year—still trying to work out when the best time is to start that crop.

A family came to visit us the second weekend in January, and that Saturday Gayle took them out to Gore Bay. The boys took their inflatable boat, and the children had fun boating in a lagoon.

The young turkeys often spend time perched on this gate. They sleep in the tree above it at night. One morning I was in the garden at 6:15 to start a sprinkler, and saw the turkeys get up for the day—or rather, down! They flew out of the tree one after another, or a bunch at a time. So funny!

Mr. Inventor’s poultry flock: geese, ducks and turkeys. He must have 70 or 80 birds, or even a hundred, in that flock.

A few days after the family I mentioned above came to visit, I took our children and a couple of theirs to Gore Bay. Since the last time we had been there, sand had come in and covered the rocks on the beach, making a wonderful place to play at low tide. The children had a lot of fun!

It was fun to investigate a starfish we found.

The family who came to visit asked if they can stay here a few weeks while they wait for their visas to be granted. They are living in our shipping container/sleepout, and Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence built this gate to go across the driveway that leads to it so they can drive right up to their room. We had just had a section of fencing across it before, to keep wandering sheep out. They built it out of pallets and a few boards given to them by a friend who moved to Australia a few months ago, and hung it on the gate posts put in by a former resident of this house, using the hinges from the original gate.

Kaikoura Peninsula—High Tide After the Earthquake

February 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On our second trip to Kaikoura after the earthquake, the second Sunday of January, we went to the Peninsula to see what it looked like at high tide.

Here is the same spot at high tide several years ago:

We saw this on the way to church. The earthquake caused the side of the road to slump down.

After leaving Kaikoura, as we started driving along the coast we saw this fresh slip, with the digger just starting to clean it up. We got through—but the road closed early that night. (Part of the highway to the south of Kaikoura, the part that was damaged the worst by the quake, is closed every night from 8pm till 6am the next morning.)

This spot looks like an entire section of a hill dropped down, creating a new gully.

The Oaro overbridge—the bridge with which the highway crosses over the railroad—suffered a lot of damage in the quake. We stopped to have a close look.

At both ends of the bridge, the road dropped about a meter. Apparently, the gravel used for fill under the ends jiggled away during the earthquake. Most of the bridges around dropped at both ends, but most only a few inches. This, of course, is unusable; you have to detour around this spot.

New Look at the Kaikoura Peninsula—Low Tide

January 22, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

During the earthquake, the seafloor rose from one to two meters above the former level. This has dramatically changed some parts of the coastline; in Kaikoura, high tide now is approximately where low tide was before the quake! There are rocks visible now that no one knew about before. We went to the Peninsula last Sunday afternoon, around low tide, to see how different it was. This is how it looked just above low tide in 2010, and up until the earthquake:

This is taken from approximately the same place, now, at about the same stage of the tide:

We walked out to the distant rocks, which we were never able to reach before; there was a channel deep enough to snorkel through even at low tide before the quake. Out there, we discovered a colony of baby seals flopping around on the rocks, making a lot of noise. We saw a few of the mothers come in to feed their babies after several days fishing out at sea. It was just amazing to get to see all that—and then, when we returned to the van at the carpark, we got to see a pod of dolphins jumping offshore. I took several videos of what we were treated to, and Esther helped me put them together, so you can enjoy a tiny glimpse, too.

Here are several more pictures of the Peninsula at sea level:

Most of the family also climbed to the top of the Peninsula; I stayed in the van with the two littlest ones. Here are some pictures Esther took from up there; the first is from several years ago, and the second is the same place now.

The Road to Kaikoura on New Year’s Day

January 18, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had not been to church in Kaikoura since the earthquake, on November 14, so it was an exciting day when we were finally able to go on New Year’s Day. Unfortunately, I had a severe migraine, so had to stay home, but the rest of the family went. Esther took my camera and got a lot of pictures of the condition of the road. It’s much better than it was immediately after the quake! There has been an enormous amount of work done already. Compared to what it used to be, though, the roads are pretty rough. I couldn’t believe the way the guardrails were twisted. In this first picture, though you can’t see it very well, a bridge on the main highway is completely gone. Traffic has been rerouted around a narrow back road.

See the new hill crossing the tracks and the road?

Many hillsides slid away.

Because the seafloor rose, low tide is much lower than it used to be.

Obviously, this bridge is not safe to drive on!

End of December 2016 Pictures

January 16, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of our pictures from December.

Mr. Inventor dropped a piece he needed to work on a pump into our underground cistern, so he put on his swimming trunks and went down into that cold water to retrieve it. He was glad to be able to pick it up with his toes, so he didn’t have to go all the way under. Mr. Diligence took the picture.

Mr. Diligence also took this one. He and Mr. Inventor were perched in an oak tree. Mr. Diligence has a new camera, which he keeps in a case on his belt, so he gets some interesting pictures. I’m glad he lets me look at his memory card sometimes!

Mr. Sweetie, piling up long grass that Mr. Inventor had just mowed, to mulch the garden.

Mr. Diligence was pretty impressed with this egg, about twice the size of a normal hen’s egg! The poor chicken who laid it.

Gayle took Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence on a picnic one Saturday. They walked around a new trail in the Domain, and came across a family of ferrets.

Esther is tying the tomatoes up this year. That should make them easier to pick!

I was pleased to harvest all this the week before Christmas! We’ve gotten a lot more since then.

Little Miss was determined to go help Esther feed the calf!

All dressed up for the Christmas Eve service! Mr. Inventor was a scribe, Mr. Intellectual was Herod, and the other three boys were the Wise Men.

Charades one evening. This was a symphony. The kitten was a violin.

Parallel. No one could guess this one.

A bit of earthquake damage we observed on our way to our picnic on the day after Christmas.

Christmas Day—Beach and Railroad Tracks

January 12, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We actually had our Christmas Day picnic the next day, since Christmas was on Sunday. We went to church that day and visited the family from whom we acquired the kittens. On Monday, then, we went to the beach for a picnic. We ate lunch in a grove of pine trees; the needles make a lovely floor to sit on. The boys played in the water, and then buried each other in the tiny rocks that covered the beach there. We had two extras that day, our nephew and a friend of our boys.

Mr. Inventor stepped on a bee as soon as he reached the beach. He put plantain on the sting and kept in on for a long time. He was quite pleased that it didn’t swell and itch like normal.

After the sting stopped bothering him, he did some beachcombing. I was quite pleased with some of his finds. The starfish washed up just as he was walking past! The orange thing is some sort of sea slug. There were also a couple of nice sponges.

We walked across the railroad track to reach the beach, and on the way back investigated the unusual curves and twists that resulted from the earthquake. I couldn’t get a picture of what we saw in the gravel under the track, but it looked like the earthquake had shoved the track back and forth, pushing the rocks out of place, and the track ended up about half a foot or more to the side of where it started out. We could tell by the rust on the rocks. It was quite interesting. We spent a little time picking cherries on our way home, beside a railway bridge. The bridge either rose, or the tracks on both ends of it sank, because they obviously drop at both ends. The gravel was gone under the end on which we were standing; it had fallen down the hill under the bridge. Kiwirail has a big job to do, repairing the tracks from here to Picton! These pictures show some very minimal damage compared to where the track follows the coast on both sides of Kaikoura.

First Trip to Kaikoura Since the Earthquake

January 7, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s already been three weeks since Mr. Inventor went to Kaikoura with a couple of men from Cheviot. They took a load of food that had been donated. At that time, the only way into Kaikoura was the Inland Route from Waiau, and you could only go in convoy. A convoy departed from Waiau at 8:00 am to go to Kaikoura, and another left Kaikoura at 3:00 pm to go back. You had to sign up online a day or two ahead, and then wait for a text message late the evening before going, to confirm that the road would be open in the morning. Only a few days later, all restrictions on that road ended and it was open for two-way traffic. A week after Mr. Inventor’s trip, Highway One, the coastal route, was opened for daytime traffic. These pictures are from Mr. Inventor’s trip on the 15th of December, on the Inland Road in convoy.

There were a lot of spectacular slips into the Conway River.

Unloading the food in Kaikoura.

A Navy ship was anchored offshore in Kaikoura.

The banks of Lyell Creek sank; apparently all houses along it have been red-stickered, meaning they are not to be used. Thankfully, our friend who lives along this lane is just far enough away that her house is fine.

Lots of twisted guard rails.

Cracks across the hillside.

The convoy forming to leave Kaikoura in the afternoon. Mr. Inventor rode in the truck at the back of the line.

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the bridge on the left is twisted one direction at one end and the other direction at the other end. The bridge to the right is a new one built since the quake to allow traffic to go through.

This is a bridge just south of Kaikoura. Again, it’s hard to tell in the picture, but the road drops six or eight inches coming off the bridge.

Another view of the twisted bridge with a temporary bridge beside it.

Early December 2016 Pictures

January 5, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

There will be another post soon (I hope) with more pictures from December, but one of the children borrowed my camera today so I don’t have my memory card. These are the pictures I do have today, when I have time to post!

I was amused one day, when I looked out the door, to see Little Miss walking very carefully around and around the tree in the middle of the roundabout in our driveway. She kept it up for quite a few minutes.

I was not quite so amused the morning I looked out to see Mr. Inventor’s flock of 35-40 ducklings going across my yard! Thankfully, ducks are very easy to herd and he got them back in the paddock before too long.

The hills are drying out again. I don’t remember ever seeing it quite like this before, half green and half brown. Maybe we’ve just never gone south at the right time before. This picture shows so clearly how the hot, dry northwest winds suck the moisture out of the grass here in North Canterbury.

I’ve been puzzling over this field since May or June, when it was planted. It looked like they sowed rocks thickly in the rows, then didn’t cover them up. I couldn’t imagine what those things were. When the plants came up, I decided they must be elephant garlic, but now we can tell what they are. Apparently, someone is raising onions for seed! (Mom, this is the field we were discussing one day when we went past while you were here—probably the day you arrived.)

I’m not sure what the blue/purple is on those hills across the Hurunui River, but it was beautiful! I’m guessing it’s a noxious weed, though.

Coming home to Cheviot one afternoon, I was struck anew by the beauty of the mountains to the north of us. I love seeing the ranges, one behind the other!

Gore Bay After the Quake

December 6, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We took my mom to Gore Bay only once while she was here. I wanted to take her again yesterday (she left today), but Monday I ended up in the hospital with a miscarriage, so that changed all our plans for the week.

Gore Bay didn’t seem much different. The boys thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water. It was right on high tide when we arrived, so the water was gradually going out. That meant they had to stay fairly close in because of the undertow, but they had a lot of fun anyway. Mr. Inventor dug a pool for Little Miss to splash in. She loved that!

Among all the white and gray rocks along the shore, we found these red and green ones! They were much prettier when they were wet.

The hillside going down to the water was covered with nasturtiums and sweet peas in bloom. The smell was so heavy! It was really lovely.

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived at the bay was this fresh slip. The soil at the very top of the cliff had fallen down to the bottom. Then, soon after several of us thought we felt a small tremor, we noticed it was still falling; we saw clouds of dust going down several times. Esther tried to capture it in a video; this short clip shows some.

Aftermath

December 4, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s now been a little over two weeks since the earthquake. We’re no longer feeling tremors very often, although I hear that Kaikoura still is. We’ve cleaned up all the damage here, and the helicopters are no longer coming in very often. I did hear a couple, several times today, but nothing like the 40+ landings a day the first week! For several days, maybe a week, there were a lot of loads taken to Kaikoura dangling from under a helicopter. This was one of the first few loads; sewer pipes to repair damage.

This was a load of water lines. It’s much bigger than it looks!

The rugby club building, across the road from us, where we had Seth’s funeral, was somewhat damaged. Several large windows were broken out, and dishes thrown to the ground and shattered. The boys took this picture through a window.

In a classic example of closing the door after the horse runs away, we had the boys put fronts on the shelves. I miss seeing my shining jars of food, but I will admit this is much safer when we live in an earthquake-prone area!

On our way to church on Sunday, we noticed this hillside. See the jagged horizontal lines? Those were not there before the quake!