Lots of Helpers

Wharariki Beach

August 22, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The same day we walked on Farewell Spit and visited Cape Farewell, we also went to Wharariki (pronounced Farariki) Beach. Yes, it was about too much for one day, but as it turned out that was our only day to do all those things. Last time we were at Golden Bay, we wanted to visit this beach, but didn’t have time. This time, we made time, and it was sure worth visiting! The walk from the carpark to the beach was a lot more strenuous than I expected. I stayed in the van to feed the baby while the rest of the family went to the beach, and then I followed when she was done. It turned out that the “20 minute walk” was a fairly rugged kilometer or so, up and down hills, through a patch of trees, over several stiles, through an area of sand dunes, and finally across a long stretch of sand dunes to the sandy beach with rocky outcroppings in places!

Mr. Imagination and his daddy crossing a stile. By the time we got back, Mr. Imagination was too tired to climb over the last stile by himself—he was sitting on it waiting for me to catch up, saying his feet hurt.

Mr. Sweetie

Gayle holding Little Miss, and Mr. Imagination, in the cave you can see in the picture above. The baby seal below was on top of a rock way up under the roof of the cave.

Sunset over the Tasman Sea

Mr. Inventor

We saw a few seals in a rock pool.

The full moon had just risen when we were walking back to the van.

Cape Farewell

August 21, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After eating a late picnic lunch after the long walk at Farewell Spit, we drove around to Cape Farewell. It received its name because it was the last land seen in New Zealand by Captain Cook and his crew as they headed home in 1770. The cape is included in land operated by the Department of Conservation. The land is used for grazing animals, and we had to walk past a few cows to get up to the viewpoint. A crew of DOC people were cutting up a huge macrocarpa tree. We really enjoyed the bright green lush grass—such a beautiful sight in comparison to our drought-stricken area!

Mr. Handyman, Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Inventor heading up the hill. I gave them strict instructions to stay at least 10 feet from the cliff edge or be sent back to the van. They did well at obeying.

Mr. Imagination coming up the hill with his daddy.

The tree-cutting operation. They were putting branches on a bank to stop erosion.

The boys had fun rolling and bumping down the steep hills. This is Mr. Imagination and Mr. Diligence.

Mr. Sweetie

The sun was in the wrong place to get a good picture of this rock formation, but trust me, it was spectacular.

Mr. Imagination was bumping down the hill on his bottom. I was trying to get a picture, and just happened to snap this as he flipped around to grin up at me. I love that look of delight!

Mr. Diligence found a cave, and Esther was there with her camera.

Mr. Inventor rarely slows down.

He did here, though!

How do you like the look of determination on Mr. Sweetie’s face? He wants to keep up with the big ones!

Mr. Diligence

Farewell Spit

August 20, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Farewell Spit is a fascinating place to visit. The world’s longest sandbar, it stretches some 18 miles out into the Tasman Sea from the northern tip of the South Island. It is the breeding ground for many kinds of birds. Tourists are not allowed on very much of it; if I remember right you are only allowed to walk on the first 2.5 km or so from the base of the spit. We walked out there, across the spit to the outside beach, and back. Actually, Mr. Imagination, Little Miss and I didn’t get that far; we turned back after only a couple of km. The rest of the family did the whole track, though; it took them about 3 hours.

This is looking out along the spit from the base, where we started the walk. I found the ripples in the sand quite interesting. They are very firm. At high tide the water comes way up this beach, but quickly goes way out again as the tide goes down.

We found this jellyfish washed up. It was about as big in real life as it is on my screen here, about 2 inches in diameter.

Mr. Inventor dug these huhu grubs out from under a rotten log. He wanted to cook them and eat them, but finally decided he didn’t want to haul them around all day!

Paradise ducks.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Inventor—not sure what they were doing.

Possibly Roseate Spoonbills? They were too far out to be sure.

Thrilled to be on the ground and able to explore the carpet of seashells! Of course, she had to taste some.

While they waited for the rest of the party to catch up, the boys enjoyed the sand dunes. This is Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Inventor, and Mr. Diligence.

The beach was covered with shells.

Black swans

There were a lot of dead crabs, or else crab shells, on the beach, too.

Going across the spit to the outer beach.

The outer beach is a lot sandier than the inner beach.

Mr. Handyman, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Sweetie, and Esther.

Collingwood

August 19, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We stayed at the Collingwood Motor Camp for three nights while we were in Golden Bay. We were there for two nights when we went to Golden Bay three years ago. That time we tent-camped. This time, we have a camper, and decided to get a cabin for some of us. We can’t all fit in the camper (if we really crowd small people, we can fit five into it), and Gayle seems to have an allergic reaction to it. When we arrived and asked for a basic cabin and site for the camper, they offered us a house for not much more! We were all able to be under one roof that way, in comfort, with the kitchen and bathroom in the same building. The owner of the campground brought us firewood and started the fire for us, and we lived in luxury on this “camping” trip! The campground changed management in October, and the new owners are really cleaning the place up. We had a beautiful view of the estuary!

This is the house we stayed in. Last time we were there, we slept in tents close to where I stood to take the picture, and cooked in the open-air kitchen on the far side of the van.

I got to walk out along the shoreline one morning at high tide, and enjoyed this flock of seagulls and oystercatchers.

Mr. Imagination and Little Miss enjoyed the freedom of being on the floor to play, after a long day in their carseats!

Esther read her brothers a bedtime story. From left to right are: Mr. Handyman, Mr. Inventor, Mr. Imagination, Esther, Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Diligence, and Mr. Intellectual. No, this isn’t posed.

The rest of these pictures aren’t at the campground, but I thought this is as good a place as any to post them. I loved the reflections in the estuary as we left Collingwood the morning after our arrival there, on the way to Farewell Spit!

The reflections were almost as good as we approached the spit.

We stopped along the way to photograph some herons stalking about the mudflats as the tide went out.

Motueka Valley and Takaka Hill

August 18, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On the first day of our trip, we went all the way to Golden Bay. Google maps said it would take 5.5 hours; I figured that meant 8 or 9 hours for us, since we have to stop occasionally and were towing a camper with our van. The van really slows down going up hills by itself, let alone with a camper, so going over the mountains, I knew would be slow. We left here at 8:30 in the morning, and it was 5:30 when we arrived, so I wasn’t too far off. We did make a few stops, to fill up with diesel twice, once to view Maruia Falls, once to do a bit of grocery shopping in Motueka so we’d have enough food for the next few days, and again for a short walk to an overlook on top of Takaka Hill when we saw that we were making good time.

This first picture was taken while we were still heading for the Motueka valley; I liked that rock formation on the hill.

As far as I know, this is the only commercial orange grove on the South Island.

Going up Takaka Hill, between Motueka and Golden Bay.

Looking down from the top of Takaka Hill.

Esther on the path to the overlook on Takaka Hill.

Esther captured these two beautiful pictures.

And here is Mr. Diligence taking his own picture of the rock above!

Another view from the top, looking toward Motueka.

This rock is granite; the entire top of the hill is littered with it.

Maruia Falls

August 17, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On the way north from Springs Junction, after crossing the Southern Alps over Lewis Pass, we stopped at Maruia Falls for a little while. This waterfall is spectacular!

Mr. Handyman

Mr. Imagination

Mr. Handyman taking Little Miss from me.

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination throwing rocks in the river below the falls.

Mr. Handyman holding Little Miss.

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Inventor

My dear hubby.

Mr. Imagination

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie coming up the path in front of their daddy and his sister.

Mr. Diligence

Mr. Inventor, Mr. Intellectual, and Mr. Handyman looking down on the falls from the upper viewpoint.

Home to Lewis Pass

August 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

While my sister-in-law was with us for the past month, we took a trip to the north part of the island. With snow on the mountains, the scenery was spectacular as we traveled toward Lewis Pass! This first picture doesn’t do justice to the depth of this valley. We always love seeing this scene.

I don’t know what this building was, but it’s rather picturesque.

This ridge parallels the road between Waiau and Rotherham for a couple of miles, then there is a break, and then another ridge is along the road for the same distance.

Mountains on the way up to Lewis Pass.

A snowplow headed up into the Pass. We followed him for awhile, and then he pulled off and let us pass him.

On the west side of the pass! We went north from Springs Junction, and I was amazed at the range of mountains to the west of us, on the other side of the valley we were driving through. They were so rugged, with sharp tops!

July Pictures

August 15, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When the seed catalog arrived, the boys had fun poring over it and making out their wish lists. I let them order what they wanted, so we’ll be trying a couple of interesting things this year. This is Mr. Handyman and Mr. Intellectual.

We have sausages every Sunday evening, and Mr. Imagination loves to put them in the baking dish for me.

One chilly day, Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination were soaking up the sun on top of the barbeque between the house and garage. Mr. Sweetie hid from me.

Mr. Inventor’s newest trailer—a local man helped him weld it with his MIG welder—now my boy is saving for a welder like that!

A beautiful morning on the way to church, with the Kaikoura range covered with snow.

Afternoon music at church—two ladies playing while other people sing.

We stopped on the way to church to watch some dolphins jumping. Then, we saw this kingfisher, and then noticed a whale (probably humpback) just offshore! We couldn’t get a picture of it, but sure were thrilled to see it!

This intense chess game between Mr. Intellectual and my sister-in-law lasted three hours! Finally, Mr. Intellectual won.

Winter chicks! We had two hens decide this winter that they wanted to set, and the first one hatched out five babies that lived. The other is still setting, but she won’t have more than a couple, if they hatch at all. She kicked most of her eggs out, because the boy who set her forgot she needed a nest and just put the eggs on the bare floor. Oops.

A friend of our boys spent a couple of nights here, and they had great fun. Here they were Indian wrestling. The point was to flip their opponent over.

They also did a lot of arm wrestling.

Mr. Imagination and Mr. Inventor were sick one Sunday morning, so I kept them home. They enjoyed building their own lunch.

Little Miss Seven Months

August 14, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Will someone please tell me where the last month has disappeared to? This little girl is already seven months old! These pictures have been taken over the course of the entire month—warning, there are a lot of them. My sister-in-law from America has been here with us for a month, and we took a trip, so I have an incredible number of photos to share here. She left yesterday, so maybe now I’ll have time to post again. To start out, here is our little charmer. This first picture shows her reaction to a strip of green pepper a month ago: She hated it! After a couple of tries, she wouldn’t even touch it anymore.

Checking out a sleeping bag.

Peekaboo!

I finally found the doll that one of my sisters-in-law made many years ago when Esther was a baby! She made matching dresses for the doll and Esther. This baby has been wearing the dress, but I couldn’t find the doll until I cleaned the boys’ room a few weeks ago.

My two daughters.

On the road: she has discovered the joys of carrot sticks…

…and shells. This was at Farewell Spit.

Enjoying the sun and grass at Cape Farewell.

Vehicle problems meant that most of us spent several hours one day at a beach. One way we entertained ourselves was by taking photos!

Little thief! She stole her big sister’s apple!

With Mommy at Split Apple Rock.

Back home again—she’s now crawling, which means that she can clean out the cupboards! Watch out, world. How do you like that innocent expression?

She’s also pulling up to anything she can get her hands on—usually so she can taste it!

Mommy’s plate and spoon are good, too.

Yesterday morning, the children put the tray on her Bumbo so she could eat a banana. She sure made a mess, but loved the new flavor.

A Lesson in Elimination

July 31, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Over a year ago, my children made this movie. Esther never got the bloopers put together until a few weeks ago, so I never posted it here. Now I finally have her permission, since the bloopers are ready, so enjoy! This movie was taken at the last house we lived in, by the way. Here is the real movie:

These are the bloopers: