Hokitika

February 22, 2026 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One Sunday in January we couldn’t get through to Reefton where we have been attending a small Baptist church. There were some culverts that had to be replaced in the road, and because of the narrow valley at that spot it was not possible to create a detour. The only way to get to Reefton from here on that Sunday and Monday would have been to drive to Greymouth, up the Coast Road to Westport, through the Buller Gorge to Inangahua, then to Reefton–a 3-hour drive rather than our normal 30 minutes. We decided to go somewhere else for church! We chose a small Church of Christ in Hokitika (an hour away), and packed a picnic lunch. One person in the family was deep in a conversation when almost everyone else had left church, so we filled our car and part of the family went to locate a place to eat our picnic. While we were waiting, the girls played in a very unusual pohutukawa tree with aerial roots, and we investigated a cannon. Elijah studied it, found a number of markings and formulated a hypothesis about how those markings were used for aiming the cannon, then looked it up online to see if he was right. He was–partly!

We also enjoyed the view up and down the Hokitika River–what a gorgeous day!

After the rest of the family joined us, we ate our lunch, then drove back through town a little way to a wood-chopping competition we had seen. A man who works with Simon was there, but we didn’t quite stay long enough to see him chop. On the way, Mom wanted a picture of this clock tower in the center of town.

These men are sawing through logs.

These 13-15-year-old boys were chopping through logs; each one had an older man coaching him.

After watching the wood-chopping for awhile, we went out to the beach. First, we stopped at the sign made of driftwood (probably the most-photographed item in the area!).

Then, we walked down the beach to the end, at the mouth of the Hokitika River, to check out the driftwood sculpture contest that was being held.

The titles given to the sculptures were very entertaining. This one is “In the Moment,” although we’re not sure what that was supposed to mean.

Pardon the language on this next sign. We sympathize with the sentiment, however–wekas are a major problem for gardens in this region. Can you see the “weka” digging up the garden (just behind the right-hand label)?

This one is “Questionable Pet.” Most of us agreed that this was our favorite.

Burl-o-pus

When I see creations like these, I marvel again at the creativity God has built into every person on earth–I love it, even though I didn’t like some of the ideas expressed.

Christmas 2024–Hokitka Gorge

January 5, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had to wait a couple of days this year for our annual family Christmas excursion. Simon had to work on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and it rained on Christmas Day anyway, so we waited until the 27th. We had decided to visit the Hokitika Gorge, which we had never been to. It was a bad time to go there, since it is the peak of tourist season and there were hundreds of people, but the scenery was amazing. First, here is a glimpse of what we enjoyed on our way to the gorge.

When we arrived, the first order of business was to eat lunch. Elijah grilled burgers and we enjoyed delicious sandwiches.

Then, we walked the gorge track. The water was incredibly blue! That is caused by minute bits of rock ground off the mountains by glaciers, which is suspended in the water and reflects the blue of the sky.

This little girl got carried the entire way by big brothers. She felt like a queen!

James couldn’t resist crawling through this culvert. It was a tight enough squeeze that he had to keep his arms out in front of his head.

Think she likes the service she receives?

After we finished walking around the gorge, we decided to find some water so those who wanted to could go swimming. We checked out a beach along the sea, but it was open to the sun and those of us who didn’t want to swim decided we wanted shade to sit in, so we found a way down to the Taramakau River. The bridge in the background of some of these pictures used to be a rail/road bridge (see this post), but a new bridge was built beside it about six years ago, for cars, so the original bridge is for trains only. Several of the children went swimming…

…while Simon collected logs for firewood and got his caveman fix by teaching Elijah how to break them up into the right size for a bonfire without using a hatchet. It was pretty funny to watch that process! (No one got hurt.)

They made a very satisfying fire that burned down into a nice bed of coals for roasting sausages and marshmallows. While the fire was burning down, James requested that Esther read aloud to us. She hadn’t brought the book she is reading, but found it in an online library and downloaded it so we could read the next chapter.

Our family Christmas outing was very satisfying! Simon said at the end of the day that it had been “epic”–his highest praise!

Siblings Day!

October 20, 2024 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One weekend in September, Gayle and I had to go to Christchurch for an appointment on a Saturday morning. We stayed that night with friends, went to church over there, and came home Sunday afternoon. All eight of our children were at home that weekend, and they went to Hokitika for church on Sunday morning, then spent the rest of the day doing things together. Esther took a lot of pictures, but said she wouldn’t be posting them on her blog, so I decided to share their day here. They started out by walking along the beach for a little way. The “boat” is just poured concrete, a picnic area. (There have been a lot of shipwrecks there; in the early days there was a wreck about every 10 days, many of which were just groundings on the bar at the mouth of the river.)

Then, they went out to eat at an Indian restaurant.

The final activity was to visit the National Kiwi Centre. We were there once before, years ago, but the younger ones either didn’t remember it or weren’t born yet.

There is a large tank of eels, some of which are about 6 feet long and 6 inches in diameter, and around 100 years old.

At feeding time, visitors are allowed to help feed them. Eels grow up in fresh-water creeks and rivers, and when they are ready to mate and lay eggs, they swim out to sea and to tropical islands near the equator. There, they lay eggs, then die. The eggs hatch and make their way back to New Zealand, where they grow to maturity–often a hundred years! The people who run the aquarium know their eels are ready to make their way to the sea when they come in in the morning and find an eel on the floor; at that point they release them into the river to swim to the sea.

The highlight of the day was catching crayfish. There is a clip on the end of a string tied to a pole. To catch a crayfish, they picked up a piece of meat with the clip and dangled it in the water; when a crayfish grabbed it, they would lift it up then catch it in a net. Apparently, our crew spent 45 minutes catching and releasing crayfish! A week later, the older boys took the younger children to catch crayfish in a river near here because they had so much fun at the aquarium.