Away From Home

Dead Boring Bike Hike 2011

August 31, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve put anything on here. Our keyboard has been acting up for the past two weeks, and it takes twice as long as usual to type anything. Today was special, though, so I decided to share it anyway.

We are part of a homeschool writing group called Dead Boring. Every two weeks during school terms we meet at someone’s home and the children each read a story they’ve written. We eat lunch together, and then the children play with their friends while the moms fellowship. This group has been an incredible blessing in our lives here. We also do a few fun things through the year, and today was one of those.

We met at Waikari, about 50 minute’s drive south of us, and the children and some adults biked to Scargill, approximately 20 km. My four oldest all did the entire route, but I drove James partway and then let him out to ride. I followed along behind him, and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was a perfect time to get some good pictures of our gorgeous scenery! The children all absolutely loved the day, although they are very tired tonight. James actually rode 13.5 km–I couldn’t believe he went that far on that little bike!

The scenery between the highway and Waikari was incredibly beautiful!

Coming over the hill to Waikari.

Everyone ready to take off!There’s one of my boys!That’s a wattle tree in bloom.Such a beautiful day! There is the determined rider I followed.

Lots of lambs!

My bored passenger!Sheep in a yard.

Some farms have signs at the end of the lane with their name on.

Young bulls

I thought this hedgerow was interesting, with alternating shades of green.

New Zealand flax

That’s a row of gum trees in the middle

Concrete water tank

Gore Bay

August 9, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yesterday the children got the dishes done and the daily housecleaning done in a hurry, so I took them to the ocean. We only have about a 15-minute drive to Gore Bay. We spent about an hour there. It was too cold to play in the water, so they played in the sand while I read stories. The waves were really high yesterday, and we got to watch a few surfers for awhile.

We go through a range of hills to get to the ocean.

Just before we get to the ocean, the road runs along this cliff at the edge of the most gorgeous valley.

Driving through Gore Bay village–houses to the right, ocean to the left on the other side of the dunes, water’s-edge cliffs ahead.

Down at the beach! Tide was about halfway out when we got there. This is looking south.Looking north along the beach, after we went back up the cliff to where the van was parked.

The Most Beautiful Drive to Church in the World?

August 8, 2011 by NZ Filbruns 7 Comments

We are convinced that we have the most beautiful route in the world to travel to church. We decided to get some pictures of the highlights along the way, and the weather today cooperated beautifully–bright and sunny on the way in the morning, and clearing again on our way home. We travel about 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) from Cheviot to Kaikoura every Sunday, and it takes us about an hour. The route varies from rolling hills to rugged hills to seacoast.

Our heifer in the neighbor’s paddock down the road, with her friends the cow and horse. Mount Lyford is visible off in the distance.

A close-up of the last scene.

As we reached the end of our road we saw another neighbor moving steers down the road.

On the next road, we saw a farmer moving his sheep and cattle to new grazing.

Snow-capped mountains beyond Saint Anne’s Lagoon, beside Highway 1.

The view as we travel down Highway 1 between Cheviot and Parnassus.

The Waiau River.

Snow-capped mountains peeking over the lower, closer hills.

The Leader River.

Hills along the Conway River, heading toward the Hundalees.

In the Hundalee Hills.

The road is quite curvy in the Hundalees!

Going up the steepest hill.

Over the top! We’re heading down towards the ocean now.

Looking up the Oaro River valley.

Our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for the day; Kaikoura Peninsula in the distance.

Barney’s Rock

The railroad parallels the highway, which runs along the seacoast.

The beautiful, rocky, Kaikoura coast.

This part of the route has a lot of curves, too!

The road goes through a set of tunnels twice.

At last we come out to where we can see snow-capped Mount Fyffe, towering over the coast.

The mountains going away from the sea.

What a view these dairy cows have!

We made it to Kaikoura! Coming down the hill into the town.

We are now on the street the church is on. The trees are Norfolk Pines.

We have arrived! The cement block building to the left is our church.

Four hours later…we came out to see snow on the hills at the end of the Blue Duck Valley!

Snow was still falling in the Blue Duck, beyond Mount Fyffe.

Heading back south…this is South Bay, on the south side of the Kaikoura Peninsula.

Last year in September, the mountainside “slipped” here, burying both the railroad and the road, and going 40 meters out into the sea. They estimated that 5,000 truckloads of debris were removed, and the road is quite a ways farther toward the sea than it was originally.

Back into the Hundalees.See the road off in the distance? That’s where we’ll be in about two minutes.

The Conway River. The yellow-flowered tree to the right is wattle.The Waiau River again.Gayle’s favorite spot along the route–a deep valley beside the highway.At the turnoff from Highway 1 to our place.Home again!
So, what do you think? Do we have any rivals? I’d like to see your route, if it’s anywhere near as beautiful as ours!

South Bay

July 31, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Today on our way home from church we stopped on the south side of the Kaikoura Peninsula, called South Bay, to fill a couple of jugs with seawater. The rocks there are extremely jagged, and the layers are at various angles, some curved. What a fascinating sight! There wasn’t much sea life, although I did see a lot of sea anemones open. The tide was coming in, and the water came obviously higher during the half an hour we were there playing on the rocks. The bigger boys were wearing their crocs, so they were able to walk in the water. Joe wanted too, also. Even though he had his church shoes on he ran through the water when we weren’t watching. We must find his crocs and keep them in the van!

Bringing the Cow Home

July 27, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On the way to fetch the cow:

We decided that today was the day to bring the cow home. She’s been in a neighbor’s paddock, about 600 meters (a little over 1/3 mile) down the road. They had grass going to waste and offered it to us. About six weeks ago we put the cow and her grown calf down there, and have been walking down to check on them a few times a week. The past week, we’ve checked on them every day, as she is getting closer to her due date. Well, that day is tomorrow, and she’s looking close! This afternoon, after school was finished and house was cleaned up, the whole crew went with me to fetch Chestnut. She’s very calm, and leads extremely well, especially considering how wild she was when we first got her a little over a year ago! Now, she’s trying to figure out where her daughter is, just wandering around the enclosure we put her in. We’re hoping for a new calf tomorrow or the next day!

That’s last year’s calf; she’s old enough now to be bred herself.

Leading the cow to the road.

She didn’t want to leave!

Once we got on the road she went willingly. Almost home, now–that’s our house up ahead.

Seals

July 24, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On our way home from church today, we stopped along the coast to fill our jugs with seawater (we evaporate it on the woodstove to make salt). The waves were wild today, so it was challenging to get the water.

I got soaked when a particularly large one caught me by surprise.

What ended up working best was when Simon filled our drink thermos with water and handed it to Seth, who handed it to me, and I poured it into the jugs.

We found a deepish spot under a boulder that was partially sheltered from the force of the waves, to fill the thermos in.

He wanted me to take a picture of this special rock.

After the jugs were full, I got in the van to try to warm up, but Gayle and the boys walked around and explored the area a bit. Several of my boys brought me beautiful little flowers–I have no idea what they are.

After awhile, Gayle came back saying, “You really have to come see this!” So, Esther and I went where they were. We were surprised–there were seals (New Zealand Fur Seals) all over on the other side of the rocks from where we had been getting water!