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You are here: Home / Archives for Boats

Boats

Picnics During Lockdown

April 5, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We decided, to make Sundays a bit more special while we’re on lockdown, to have a picnic by the creek down the hill from our town. We built a small fire and roasted sausages and marshmallows, and then played in the creek with Simon’s kayak and a couple of boats the boys built. When everyone had their fill of the water, we went across the creek and did target practice with Simon’s air rifle, aiming toward a sand dune. We really enjoy having this safe, private place to be outside! It’s within walking distance of our house, and the water is shallow enough there is no danger even if a boat flips.

Miss Joy loves boat rides! I apologize for so many pictures, but I couldn’t decide which of these to leave out.

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Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination wading in the creek. That’s the Paparoa Mountains in the background.10-IMG_3752

Esther wanted the water drained out of the kayak before she got in. It took too long—she gave up waiting!11-IMG_3755

This is the boat Mr. Intellectual built. It’s nearly unsinkable, at least on this kind of water.12-IMG_3756

The willow trees near the creek were covered with these big aphids!13-IMG_3758

The trees were also swarming with bumblebees and wasps. I found out how hard it is to get a picture of an insect. Esther did better, though.14-IMG_3767

I tried out the kayak—fun!15-IMG_377016-IMG_3776

These boys rocked the boat…17-IMG_3779

…and these two rode the waves from it!18-IMG_3781

When we went across to shoot the air rifle, Miss Joy discovered something new—sand! She was thrilled to have something new to investigate.19-IMG_3782

Simon really wanted me to try shooting. It turns out that I’m a pretty good aim when I can lean on something like this…but not when I have to hold the air rifle up myself!20-IMG_378821-IMG_378922-IMG_3790

Simon likes to give everyone a turn shooting.23-IMG_3791

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The previous pictures were all from last week, when it was cloudy and cool. This week, it was sunny and warm. This was the view up the river as we walked down to the creek.31-IMG_383332-IMG_383433-IMG_383534-IMG_383635-IMG_383836-IMG_3839

We pass this row of trees on our way up. It was such a beautiful day today!37-IMG_3846

Here are a few video clips I put together from our afternoon at the creek.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Boats, Creek, Lockdown, Picnic, Video

Orwell Creek

December 1, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are able to walk to a creek in about 5 minutes, and reach the spot where it empties into the river in 10 minutes. The boys found a spot that is deep and calm enough for swimming, so twice in the last several weeks we’ve walked down there on a Sunday afternoon. One of those days, they took Mr. Imagination’s boat along, and Simon floated in it down to the swimming hole. Then, they played with it and swam for awhile. It is a beautiful spot down there!

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This time that we went down was two days after a torrential rain (we got 5 inches in two days; some places higher in the mountains got 2-3 times that much). The river obviously ran over this place—see how the grass is laid down!

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Notice how the creek was still high. It had gone down about 6 inches since the day before, though.

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When it was time to go back, Simon and Mr. Diligence twisted a grass rope with which to pull the boat up around a couple of bends, so they didn’t have to carry it so far.

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These pictures were from the second time we walked down. Foxglove is in bloom everywhere now.

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We crossed the creek just above its mouth. I liked this scene, with Gayle carrying Little Miss.

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Mr. Diligence, Mr. Sweetie, and Mr. Imagination didn’t need help!

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Simon gave Little Miss a ride home in his bike trailer, but going up the hill to get back to town was hard work. He stopped and had her push a little ways!

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Here’s a video of the boat ride. Somehow, the quality turned out pretty poor; don’t try to full-screen it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP-BmUmW8KM]

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Boats, Orwell Creek

Jet Boat Race

November 3, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Thursday morning, a friend called to tell us that there was a jet boat race happening on the Grey River, and the boats would finish at the bridge over the Ahaura River just down the hill from us. She gave us the times they would be taking off on each of their three trips up and down the river, and sure enough, we soon heard the first round arriving. The second round started arriving shortly before lunch, so we took off down to the river to watch. We were a couple hundred meters past the finish line, so they were slowing down, but we enjoyed watching them shoot under the bridges and stop just upstream from us.

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After all the boats had arrived here, we walked down stream to wait for them to take off again. When we reached the finish/start line, we learned that it would be another 20 minutes, so we went farther and found a good spot to settle down right at the water’s edge. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the river bottom was so lovely, with bright yellow gorse and broom flowers all over. Yes, those shrubs are a terrible nuisance, but this time of year they are gorgeous!

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Once the race started again, we enjoyed watching 19 boats go past. They left about a minute apart, and we could see the spray going up behind them for about 30-45 seconds, for maybe a mile around a couple of bends in the Grey River.

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I tried to get a video to show the speed, and did get a few seconds—but then the batteries in my camera died.

 Here are the few seconds of video I got.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFYM_GUcf28&w=560&h=315]
And there you have it–our impromptu field trip this week!

Chautona Havig’s free Kindle book this week is 31 Kisses. I enjoyed it, but didn’t write a review; it’s kind of a “fluffy” book—not a lot to it. It’s just clean, fun romance.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Ahaura River, Boats, Field Trip

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The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

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