Canterbury

Through the Mountains

July 20, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One weekend in June, we traveled to the other side of the mountains for some church meetings. That Saturday afternoon was beautiful and sunny; we really enjoyed the scenery. The mountains were amazing, and we stopped near the top of Lewis Pass to walk out to a little pond for a few minutes. We tried taking pictures of the girls together, and found out that it is very hard to get Miss Joy to smile for a picture! We got one half decent one. There was hoar frost still in some places, even though it was afternoon–must not be any sunshine in those spots! There was still a tiny bit of snow up there, leftover from a storm nearly a week before. The children managed to scrape together enough for a few snowballs.

After the meetings, we were ready to go home Sunday afternoon and learned that Lewis Pass was closed. Two of our boys had gone over early Sunday morning and had to drive out around a slip on the grass verge; half an hour after they got through, the road closed. When we learned about it, the word was that it would be opened at 6:00 that evening, but we decided not to chance it. Instead, we went around the long way over Arthurs Pass, which takes an extra hour. We were very glad we did that, since Lewis Pass wasn’t opened until Tuesday or Wednesday morning. From Porters Pass to past Castle Hill, there was a lot of snow on the ground still from the previous storm. It was very icy by this time, but there were crowds of people along the road playing in it. It sure was beautiful as the sun set!

Snowy Mountains

October 27, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We were privileged to see a lot of snow on mountains late this winter. I took these first five pictures as Gayle and I drove to Christchurch one Saturday morning for an appointment. The drive over Arthurs Pass and through the mountains was spectacular!

Mr. Sweetie took these pictures one morning when the Paparoa Range, to the west of us, had a lot of snow on it.

And, to wrap this up, here are a few other pictures I took of mountains as we traveled home from North Canterbury in early September. This is heading toward Lewis Pass.

I was intrigued by this cloud formation and the rain coming down ahead of us.

This was a scene we enjoyed as we neared home that day.

More June 2024 Photos!

August 21, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Here are the rest of the pictures I saved from everyone’s cameras and devices in June. Sometime in May, Mr. Sweetie had a dentist appointment, so we spent the day in town. Esther went along, and we went to all the secondhand shops in town. I found a duvet cover that was so pretty I got it to make into dresses, and then put these together for the girls from it. The other side was yellow green stripes on a white background, and I got pajama pants for two boys from that! I was pretty happy with that find.

While Esther was away the first weekend in June, I found this email in my Spam folder. I was so amused that I took a picture of it to show her before deleting it.

Mr. Imagination builds a lot of things out of Lego.

I’m not sure what this was all about!

Our turkey flock. We have since butchered most of them. We have been spending way too much on feed for them, and not getting much in the way of returns, since hawks destroy most of the nests. And now, since a strip along one side of this paddock was sold, they don’t have anywhere safe to make nests. So, now I won’t have to put up with the mess they made in the milking shed! And, we’re enjoying eating turkey.

Miss Joy loves the attention her brothers give her! Mr. Imagination was underneath the coat.

One frosty morning, we were surprised to see this digger show up in front of our window! A house will eventually be built there. The fence that is visible, partially built, in the background, is finished now, and we can’t see our calf in the paddock across the road anymore.

A day or two after the digger worked in front of our house, it was used across the road to cut down trees around the trucking yards. Now, I can see this mountain from my kitchen window! I love that change. The tallest mountain is apparently the one across the river from the farm Simon went to first after leaving the mechanic shop, and the long ridge is behind the farm he is currently on–so he is between them.

The little girls built this tower one day. They were happy to use every block.

Elijah went to a weekend camp a month or two ago, in Canterbury. One day, a group walked to this bridge, in the Rakaia Gorge. I thought his pictures were so gorgeous I had to share them!

I don’t know where this is, but isn’t it beautiful? Elijah took it, likely on his way to work on morning, judging by the timestamp.

Esther took the girls on a walk around the block one afternoon. Miss Joy loves to ride her “bike.”

I love the way her ponytails stream out behind!

After going on a 4WD trip, Simon needed to wash his vehicle!

Timaru Trip

May 26, 2024 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Every year, we love to go to the Easter Conference in Timaru. There are more young people there every year, it seems like, and this year was no exception. There were around 25-30 people younger than 40 when one of the speakers asked them to go up front for a photo! On Saturday morning, a group of the teens and early 20s walked to the lighthouse, and Elijah took this picture. Can you see the lighthouse glowing on the point of land?

A lot of them also went to the Sunrise Service the next morning, and he took this picture then.

On our way home, we took a shortcut through a high basin in the mountains, which avoided the heavy traffic and roadworks that would have slowed us down if we took the main routes, and also cut down on the distance we had to drive. It was gorgeous! The other times I went through there, it was either cloudy, or I was so sick with a migraine that I couldn’t look out at the scenery.

Lyttleton

October 15, 2023 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Near the beginning of September, I had the privilege of going to the HEART South retreat for homeschooling mothers. It was a very special experience to be with around a hundred other mothers who all share similar goals. This year, it was held at the Living Springs camp near Lyttleton, just outside of Christchurch. During the free time on the Saturday afternoon, I went for a walk with some friends. That “walk” turned out to be quite an adventure, as we tried to blaze a trail to a particular destination! The trail we thought we were on turned out to be a dead end, and trying to get back to where we needed to be was a bit challenging. It was a lot of fun, though, and I loved the time reconnecting with old friends.

This is the view up the hill from the camp.

Looking down over the camp buildings toward Lyttleton Harbor. Banks Peninsula is on the other side of the water, to the right.

We walked out past the camp to their outdoor camping area, and enjoyed this view of the harbor.

That evening after dark, I walked outside by myself for a little while to enjoy the warm night. This was the harbor in the dark–except it was much more beautiful in reality.

And, the harbor again in morning light! It was so beautiful!

This was a nettle we saw on the walk on Saturday afternoon. I still haven’t gotten around to looking it up to see what kind it is, but I don’t think I want to touch it!

Then, a few weeks later, I saw Lyttleton from the other side. Simon and I went to Christchurch to buy a car, and the dealer told us to go through the Lyttleton Tunnel on our test drive.

Trip to Kaikoura

May 26, 2019 by NZ Filbruns

This weekend we made a quick trip to Kaikoura. We hadn’t been back there for church since we moved here, almost a year and a half ago. Most of us went to visit our friends there a year ago, and we’ve seen some of the people since then, but there is one dear lady we hadn’t seen at all. It was so good to be there and touch base again with the people we spent eight years with!

On our way, we stopped for a little while in Waiau, and the children enjoyed playing at the playground in the warm sunshine. Mr. Imagination got hit in the face with a piece of playground equipment (a brother got a little careless in bouncing it) and apparently had a slight concussion; the next half hour of his trip was miserable. After he had a short nap, he was fine.

Left to right: Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Imagination, Mr. Sweetie, Simon

Our next stop was the cemetery in Cheviot where Seth is buried. We had bought a headstone for him six months ago, and hadn’t seen it yet. That was rather an emotional part of the day.

We next moved on to St. Anne’s Lagoon, just south of Cheviot, where we had a picnic lunch. The lagoon was gorgeous on this clear fall day–look at those reflections! It was so nice to see the lagoon full of water again. A couple of years ago, during the three-year drought that Cheviot endured, the lagoon dried up.

After lunch, we headed on to Kaikoura, where we had a joyous reunion with old friends. There were still a few hours of daylight, so we went out to the Peninsula. Most of both families walked partway around at sea level, then climbed a stairway to the top and came back to the car park. The mother and I, and some of the children, walked out on the rocks a little way, then went back to their house and started preparing food. It is so amazing to see what low tide looks like now–so different from before the November 2016 earthquake, when the sea floor rose two meters.

New Year’s Tramp

February 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Gayle took the three oldest boys, and two of their friends, on a long tramp just after New Year’s Day. They started at Windy Point, and finished at Lake Taylor. They reckon they did 59 kilometers in two days—that’s a lot of walking over rough terrain! Unfortunately, Mr. Diligence forgot his camera, so the only photographic record of the trip is a few photos Gayle took with his phone, which are not very good but do help to preserve a few memories! This was a stop for lunch. They cooked 2-minute noodles.

Some scenery along the trail.

Resting along a stream.

They crossed four of this style of bridges.

Sometimes the track was easy….

…and sometimes it was not! This creek was a series of waterfalls, much steeper than the picture shows.

I went across the mountains the second day to pick them up, with the three youngest children. We stopped for 40 minutes at the beginning of the track and walked to the first swing bridge.

The Boyle River is so beautiful!

The road back in to Lake Taylor to pick them up was incredible! It took me well over an hour to drive the 35 kilometers on the dirt road. The scenery was amazing—when I could look at it! The road took most of my attention. I managed to grab one quick photo on a relatively safe stretch (I was driving very slowly) and got another on the way out. This is part of the Hurunui River.

Even though I have never seen my boys so tired, they loved it and want to do it again—but they say they will allow three days next time so they can enjoy it more.

Poppies!

November 25, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, most of the children stayed with me over in Canterbury for a couple of extra days so that we could spend a day with our homeschool group. On one of those days, we visited a family who have been dear friends for a long time. While there, we walked down the road from their house to a dry river bed. There were poppies growing everywhere we looked in this river bed—such a beautiful sight! Little Miss got to pick flowers to her heart’s content, and then we gave her bouquet to the next friend we visited. A couple of my boys dug up some plants to bring home; they are taking root in an old wheelbarrow full of dirt that we have. We greatly enjoyed that lovely day!

This was the view from our friends’ house.

One of her favorite activities is picking flowers! We’ve had to forbid her to pick any without asking first, because she’ll pick any and every flower she sees, otherwise.

May 2018 photos

June 16, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of my pictures from May. The little boys built this castle in the sandbox one day. Mr. Sweetie found his Ecuadoran flag (from Let’s Go Geography) and flew it from the top turret.

One Tuesday evening near the beginning of May, a car crashed in the paddock across the road from us after a 6-hour high-speed chase. The boys (and some of the rest of us) spent a lot of the next two hours watching the police tracking down the driver, who had taken off on foot, and the tow truck loading up the car, which was escorted by the police back to town. The really amazing thing about this crash was how the fence of the paddock was flung up and over our cow who was standing just inside the fence; the car passed a meter behind her.

On a sunny day, we can see these mountains, the Paparoas, from the girls’ bedroom window. This was a rare clear sunrise, with snow on the mountains.

We find Goofball sleeping in the most contorted postitions!

Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligent rebuilding the fence destroyed by the car.

Esther likes to raise bread in front of the stove in the living room. Goofball paid no attention, but Grizzly was very suspicious of it—maybe she could hear the yeast working in the bowl?

Simon bought another car in May, a Suzuki. When the neighbor asked about it, I said, “My son is a mechanic. Need I say more?”

We see a lot of rainbows here! This was one I could see one afternoon from my kitchen window. The end of the rainbow is at the edge of the paddock we use for our cow, where the car crashed.

We spent a weekend in late May in Canterbury, and one of our days over there I took the children to Kaikoura. We enjoyed watching abseilers at work on the cliff faces.

This house surprised us. During a cyclone a couple of weeks after we moved, a new slip came down and filled the house with rocks and dirt! Some of the walls were bulging out.

We also spent a few minutes at Gore Bay, where the boys tried to move a log into the water.

We played on the playground for a few minutes, and Mr. Sweetie climbed his favorite net.

April 2018 Pictures

June 3, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Ok, time to finish cleaning out the folder of pictures from April. This first set was taken on our way home from Timaru over Easter. We came home via Arthur’s Pass, and I couldn’t believe the colors on this mountain side, which was, I believe, somewhere near Porter’s Pass on the way to Arthur’s. I know we’ve driven past this mountain a number of times, but somehow the light conditions made it just glow, even though the sun wasn’t hitting it.

This was a cloud front we saw. The upper part of the sky is actually a thick cloud, even if it doesn’t quite look like it here.

A few minutes later, it started raining, and poured the rest of our way home!

I often make a batch of “fudge”, with peanut butter, carob powder, coconut oil, and flake coconut. Mr. Diligence loves to cut it up for me so that he can eat some of it, and this time he was clowning around pretending he would eat the whole thing!

Little Miss refused to take her nap this day, and for about the first time in her life she just fell asleep on the couch when she was looking at a book!

Mr. Imagination loves the cats!

This is what I saw in the living room one morning. She told me afterward, “Mommy, I was enjoying that book.”

When some friends from Canterbury came to visit on weekend, we walked down to the river. The boys, of course, had to throw stones.