Away From Home

Picnic at the Ocean

November 19, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had a spur-of-the-moment picnic at the ocean tonight. I threw together a quick casserole by baking sausages and cutting them into little pieces, then mixing in a couple of cans of baked beans and topping it with leftover mashed potatoes, while Elijah made Ants on a Log (celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins) and Esther cut up fruit. Then, while the casserole baked, we milked quickly and then left. The children had great fun digging in the sand, while Gayle and I got to be by ourselves and walk down the beach to the rocky cliffs at the other end. What a lovely end to the day!

Looking south along Gore Bay Is he really having fun?

One of my sweet boys picked this bouquet for me on the way back up the cliff!

This Has Been an Interesting Week!

November 19, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This week has been very full, and I haven’t had any great inspirations for a good post, so here’s a quick look through some pictures Esther took throughout the week.

Sunday morning was a beautiful morning to drive to church–but apparently eggs are not a good choice for Sunday morning breakfast. I’ve been watching what we eat and how the children react in terms of carsickness (quite an issue when you go through the Hundalees and along the coast!), and the two weeks lately that we’ve had eggs we’ve had a lot of complaints about upset tummies. The week in between, when we had granola, no one complained. Anyway, this time the youngest got sick, for the first time, and got you-know-what all over his shirt, pants, and car seat. We pulled off immediately and cleaned up while the children enjoyed the ocean. What we didn’t get a picture of was Daddy down at the water, rinsing out the shirt and pants when an extra-large wave drenched him!

Sunday evening after we got home, one boy asked to look up how to make a slingshot, on YouTube. A magpie has been terrorizing the boys, and drew blood on one the day before–he came in with his hand pressed against his head, and blood streaming down his forehead. It seems to be a juvenile magpie, just having fun. (The juvenile delinquent of the bird world?) So, my boys are out to protect their family from this terrorist and a slingshot seemed to be a halfway decent idea. This was what he came up with, and we had the materials on hand (milk bottle top and balloon; he added duct tape to secure the balloon later):

Monday was a gorgeous day, and my photographer got some beautiful shots of the animals and the views from around the house. This is our landlord’s paddock of wheat and corners of some of our raised beds.

The cow–happy because she can be near one of the calves, even though he isn’t hers.

The hills west of us in the evening; wheat in the foreground.

Tuesday we went to Christchurch for Dead Boring (homeschool writing group). The younger children were playing at making a garden in the afternoon. All five of my boys are in this group–can you pick them out?

The family who hosted DB this time live across the street from the Avon River–still beautiful in most places even if sewage gets in it now! The water level seems a lot higher than before the February earthquake; if I understand right, the bed of the river was pushed up.

The house next door to our friends is unoccupied; the people moved out after the September quake over a year ago. This crack goes through their yard.

We drove through a section of town that I hadn’t been in since a week before the February quake. Although a lot has been cleaned up, the destruction is still incredible. It seems like all the older, beautiful buildings are gone or going, and only the newer, less pretty ones are left. So sad.

This picture doesn’t show it very well, but the whole house was sort of “wracked”–almost twisted. This entire area is going to be demolished and not rebuilt.

The Grand Chancellor Hotel–tallest building in Christchurch. It’s been leaning since February 22, and now it’s being demolished.Churches, built out of brick or stone, suffered the most.

…And we were glad to get back home again to our peaceful spot in the country, far away from the quakes and the city!

The roses are blooming! With 40 bushes around the house, and most of them different varieties, we enjoy quite the array of colors.

While I was in town on Tuesday, I bought 30 kilograms of carrots. I wanted to bottle 20 kg of them for quick additions to soups, so Wednesday I had the boys peel and chop while I read to them. They did about half that day. The next day, they got started on the remaining carrots before I even suggested it, and before I knew what was happening they were finished–with no story to listen to! They were racing to see who could peel and chop five the quickest. My boys are growing up.

Friday we went back to Christchurch because Gayle had a series of appointments with medical professionals to get a paper saying that he does not have tuberculosis. Hopefully now our permanent residency visa will go through.

So there you have it–the partial story of our week! I am very thankful that I don’t have to go to town very often, let alone twice in a week! Glad to have it over with, but I’m also glad we were able to go and attend Dead Boring, get the medical work done, and we even got to have a date while we were there (a dear friend kept the children for a few hours!). It was also good to be able to stock up on groceries and get fresh produce that we can’t afford up here (I spent nearly $200 on produce this week–but hadn’t bought much of any for six weeks.)

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!