Holiday Trip

On to Bluff!

March 4, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We spent most of our day in the Catlins. There was so much to see! Such beautiful scenery. The sun even came out, making the world even more beautiful. This is very near the southernmost point of the South Island.

Can you guess which direction the prevailing winds come from?Those mountains off in the far distance are Stewart Island. For some reason, I had never realized that Stewart Island was visible from the mainland, so it was a surprise to be able to see it.

We stopped for a few minutes near Fortrose. In the mouth of a river there, you can see a shipwreck at low tide. We were an hour or so too late to see that, but the cliffs were spectacular!

Stewart Island

Miss Joy was thrilled to find a puddle! It was the first real fun she had in days. She was quite sad when we took her away from it to move on; she was getting very tired of being in the van in her carseat.

These shags were on a tiny ledge partway down the cliff.

I don’t remember where this was! It had to be near Bluff.

There were interesting murals on several buildings in Bluff.

We saw the famous sign at the tip of Bluff, but there were no parking places nearby, and there were a lot of people around, so we just drove by and went elsewhere.

Instead of taking our picture by the most famous sign in Bluff, we went back to this sculpture and took some pictures.

Then, we drove up to the Bluff Lookout. I stayed at the van for awhile to feed Miss Joy. There are some of my children at the top! Esther took the pictures below from up there; I climbed up when the baby was finished, but didn’t take any pictures.

Stewart Island

The aluminium smelter is in the center of this picture.

And, that was Day 8 of our trip! We spent the night with some friends just north of Invercargill.

Curio Bay

March 2, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Our second stop, on the day we drove through the Catlins, was at Curio Bay. The friends with whom we stayed the night before told us that we would be able to see a petrified forest if we got there at low tide, so we timed our day in order to reach there then. Mr. Imagination found this shrimp soon after we got down onto the rocks. We really enjoyed seeing rock pools again! The ones we used to explore in Kaikoura were destroyed in the earthquake, so we haven’t been able to explore them for a long time.

This bay really reminded us of the Kaikoura Peninsula. It had pretty much the same type of rocks, and rock pools everywhere.

We soon started finding petrified trees! Some were laying down, like this one.

Some seemed to have charred wood.

Some were stumps sticking up.

There was even bull kelp, like in Kaikoura!

This natural bridge was fun!

Another horizontal log.

These swirls in the side of the cliff were fascinating.

Mr. Sweetie found this crab.

We were also fascinated with the layers in the cliff.After exploring the rocks for awhile , we went back to the vans and had a picnic.

We passed this beautiful estuary right after we left Curio Bay.

Purakaunui Falls

February 28, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We spent the Sunday night of our trip with some friends who live in the Catlins, an area in the far southeast part of the South Island. We asked them for some ideas of good places to visit on our way to Invercargill the next day, and one of their suggestions was Purakaunui Falls, a walk not too far from their house. We made that our first stop for the day. I took a picture of the sign at the beginning of the track because I knew I wouldn’t remember this name!

The track went through dense bush, along a creek. It was beautiful and peaceful!

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The waterfall was spectacular! It reminded us of Bond Falls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, except on a smaller scale.

Mr. Diligence, Elijah, Mr. Imagination

Simon, Elijah, Mr. Sweetie in between them, and Mr. Imagination

Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination

Little Miss

After we left the waterfall, we had to stop on the road for a minute because some farmers were moving a mob of sheep down the road. We didn’t actually see those sheep, but we did see this mob in some yards just down the road.

The Catlins are beautiful! Rolling green hills with bush here and there, and sheep and cattle on the hills.

At times we drove along the sea; this is a river mouth.

The beaches are beautiful!

South of Dunedin

February 24, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We spent two nights with our friends in Dunedin. While we were there, I didn’t take any pictures. It was pouring the entire time, and we mainly stayed inside. Our friends had built a guesthouse, which we slept in. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but every time I went to it, I was trying to carry a baby and an umbrella, and dodging around the river that was running down the path we took up to it! It was very comfortable, and we enjoyed our time with them. We left late Sunday afternoon, and headed on south to visit some friends in the Catlins. Just before we left, Esther wanted to get a picture with her two little sisters, in the new dresses she made for them all just before our trip.

Our friends live on a mountain, and the road going down is slightly daunting! I have no idea what the gradient is, but it’s steep!

This is the Dunedin Train Station, which I posted pictures of the other time we were down there. You can find the pictures here and here, if you’re interested.

More interesting buildings in Dunedin.

Houses on the hillside. Dunedin is a very hilly city!

Maybe half an hour after we got on the road, the skies opened in a cloudburst. It was raining so hard that we had to slow down quite a lot. We could hardly see ahead of us. We kept moving, but slowly, and soon the rain let up—but then we started seeing flooding.

We crossed a bridge over the Taieri River, and saw the water pouring over the stopbank on the far side. Esther was taking a video at the time, and caught that.

I don’t think anyone drove into that paddock that day!

It was rather a relief to get away from the flooding as we continued farther south. I was a bit concerned that the road might end up closing, and didn’t want to be caught somewhere we didn’t want to be.

The Clutha River was high, too, but not as bad as up north.

The Catlins are beautiful! Rolling, green hills with cattle and sheep on them.

Twizel to Dunedin

February 21, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Day 5 of our trip was New Year’s Day. We had a leisurely morning with our friends in Twizel, including a late breakfast eaten on the lawn in the warm sunshine (little did we know that was almost the last sunshine we would see for a week!), and then got on our way down the road sometime around noon. We headed south; our goal was to reach the home of other friends in Dunedin. Up until this point, we were retracing routes we had driven other times, but this day everything was new. We drove through a lot of very dry country, broken with lakes here and there that stretched for miles along the road; I am guessing they were all man-made, for generating electricity.

See those clouds coming in? The first hour or two that we were on the road the weather was nice. It was cloudy, but that kept it from being too hot. Then, the heavens opened, and it started pouring! When we finally stopped to eat lunch (around 3:00), it was pouring so hard that we pulled into an empty carpark and pulled the vans up so that the sliding doors were facing each other. Esther and I made sandwiches in our van and then radioed to the other van to open a window so we could pass the plates through. We were so fogged up inside that we couldn’t see each other, but if we opened a window we got drenched quickly!

This was one of the few times that Little Miss rode in our van. The girls enjoyed reading books together.

We saw a sign for the Aviemore Hydro Station and made a quick decision to have a look. First, we crossed the river on the road that goes over the dam, and had a look down from the top.

Then, we drove back across. See the tracks on the sides of the road? It looked like a crane goes on those, and can open the trapdoors in the middle, probably for servicing the power plant.

Then, we looked at the power station from the bottom.

This was a very interesting feature. A fish ladder led to a spawning stream—a man-made channel duplicating the conditions in the wild in which trout lay their eggs. The spawning stream doubles back on itself; it’s apparently a kilometer long altogether.

I grabbed this photo of a ram in the paddock beside the drive down to the power station. My boys saw me taking the photo and called on the radio to inform me that it was a merino. I was impressed by the horns!

An interesting planting of trees we saw on a hillside, after it started raining.

One thing I really wanted to see was the Moeraki Boulders. It was drizzling, but not hard, so we stopped when we reached them, and walked about 10 minutes down the beach to see the famous sight.

These boulders are concretions, formed by something rolling around in sediments and building up layer after layer.

Mr. Sweetie

Miss Joy

Simon

Simon, me, Mr. Sweetie, Elijah

Mr. Diligence, Mr. Sweetie and Little Miss

Then, it started raining harder, and we were already late for tea with our friends in Dunedin, so we hurried back to the vans as fast as we could.

Hooker Valley Track

February 14, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On New Year’s Eve, after we walked up the Tasman Glacier Walk, we drove around to the other side of the mountain to the carpark nearest to Mount Cook. We have walked the Hooker Valley Track two other times, and loved it each time. This time, I decided to stay in the van and let Miss Joy have a nap on the bed. Mr. Imagination and Little Miss didn’t want to walk, so they stayed, too. I let them stay—on condition that they play quietly, outside the van so they wouldn’t bother their baby sister. She fell asleep quickly, and I enjoyed getting to read and do some writing in the breeze that blew through the open windows of the van. The other two played with four toy animals that Simon had bought for the four youngest children at our friends’ shop that morning. I’m not sure what all they did with them, but they kept busy for an hour! Then, Mr. Imagination saw an avalanche on the mountain facing us, and was so excited that he forgot about being quiet. That was the end of Miss Joy’s nap! I was thankful that she’d had a good solid hour, though.

This is the mountain we were facing. See the nearly horizontal wall of snow stretching across the left side, near the top? There were several avalanches from it during the afternoon, and when we left there was a huge notch that wasn’t there when we first arrived. I think it was made by the avalanche that ended up causing Miss Joy to wake up.

After Miss Joy woke up, the three children played together on the bed for awhile with their animals, and then we decided to start walking on the trail to meet the rest of the family.

Most of the rest of the pictures are from other people’s cameras, since I didn’t go far on the trail.

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This is the first (of two) swing bridges. The little ones and I went just to the other side of this one, sat on some rocks there for awhile, then came back, and about that time the first members of our family joined us.

The second swing bridge.

Do you see the shape of the lower slopes? They were gouged out by glaciers.

Mount Cook!

There were a lot of very interesting flowers.

I’m not sure which glacier this is, although my best guess would be the one at the base of the mountain in the first picture in this post. Maybe Esther will comment below; she went on the walk and knows more about the scenery than I do!

Back at the vans! There was another avalanche, which the boys were looking at. See Miss Joy on the bed?

Our last glimpse of Mount Cook for this trip.

Back at our friends’ house, Mr. Imagination found these two pine cones. He was intrigued by the size difference. The little one is about an inch and a half long.

Tasman Glacier Walk

February 10, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Day four of our trip dawned bright and sunny! We got around rather slowly that morning; it was nearly noon before we left our friends’ house in Twizel. We stopped at their shop in town and bought a number of things, including straw hats for a couple of us who didn’t want to add to the brilliant sunburns we were already sporting from our day at Cave Stream and Castle Hill! Then, we headed up along Lake Pukaki toward Mount Cook. We were delighted that the high cloud allowed us to see the beautiful mountain in the distance.

I always enjoy the mountains along the way, too. They line both sides of the valley.

The lavender farm was in full bloom. This photo doesn’t anywhere near do justice to the vivid color.

Mr. Imagination loved riding with Miss Joy. One of their favorite games was to play with wet wipes. They would scrub their faces and necks for a long time—cheap entertainment!

We pulled off to get some pictures of Mount Cook on our way up Lake Pukaki. Esther and I, in the lead van, decided not to stop, but the other van wanted to. They pulled off at the official viewing place, which was crowded with tourists. We told them we would look for a place to turn around, but couldn’t find anywhere for a couple of kilometers. Then, we found an old pull-off, with no one there and a great view! We called the other van on the radio and told them to join us. Then, while we were waiting, Esther and I got the idea that this would be a good place to take a family photo. We wanted to do that sometime on our trip. We checked out the lighting in several places, and found a spot that worked, so she got out her tripod.

This was the view from the official pulloff. Gayle snapped it with his phone.

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I got individual pictures of the children, too, and grabbed this shot in the process. This is Mr. Sweetie, Miss Joy, Simon, and Elijah.

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Esther took this one while we were figuring out lighting and backgrounds.

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Everyone wandered around under the big tree for awhile as we got things figured out.

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Lots of helpful advice about the perfect location for a photo!

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One of the final results! I don’t think this is the one we ended up printing, though.

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As we kept driving, the mountain showed up more and more clearly.

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The other mountains are gorgeous, too!

When we reached the carpark for the Tasman Glacier walk, we decided to eat lunch first. We found a little meadow where we could spread out our picnic.

The walk to the viewing spot for the glacier is up a steep hill—a moraine. You find out just how physically fit you are—or not!

See the glacier at the head of the lake? It has a thick layer of dirt and rocks on top. Mount Cook is in the distance to the left.

While we were standing there, I heard a man, who looked like he was about 40 years old, tell his child that when he was born, the glacier was just below where we were standing—you could step onto it from the top of the hill. That’s hard to believe!

A close-up of the glacier.

See the Paradise Duck at the edge of the lake?

Looking down the valley. You can see a sliver of Lake Pukaki in the distance.

One of the Blue Lakes—which are actually green!

Another view down the valley.

Tasman Glacier Walk

February 10, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

I always enjoy the mountains along the way, too. They line both sides of the valley.

The lavender farm was in full bloom. This photo doesn’t anywhere near do justice to the vivid color.

Mr. Imagination loved riding with Miss Joy. One of their favorite games was to play with wet wipes. They would scrub their faces and necks for a long time—cheap entertainment!

This was the view from the official pulloff. Gayle snapped it with his phone.

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I got individual pictures of the children, too, and grabbed this shot in the process. This is Mr. Sweetie, Miss Joy, Simon, and Elijah.

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Esther took this one while we were figuring out lighting and backgrounds.

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Everyone wandered around under the big tree for awhile as we got things figured out.

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Lots of helpful advice about the perfect location for a photo!

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One of the final results! I don’t think this is the one we ended up printing, though.

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As we kept driving, the mountain showed up more and more clearly.

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The other mountains are gorgeous, too!

When we reached the carpark for the Tasman Glacier walk, we decided to eat lunch first. We found a little meadow where we could spread out our picnic.

The walk to the viewing spot for the glacier is up a steep hill—a moraine. You find out just how physically fit you are—or not!

See the glacier at the head of the lake? It has a thick layer of dirt and rocks on top. Mount Cook is in the distance to the left.

A close-up of the glacier.

See the Paradise Duck at the edge of the lake?

Looking down the valley. You can see a sliver of Lake Pukaki in the distance.

One of the Blue Lakes—which are actually green!

Another view down the valley.

On to Twizel!

February 7, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After we visited the Aviation Museum in Ashburton, on the third day of our trip, we headed southwest to Twizel. We have friends who live there, and though we’ve been to the area a couple of times already, we always enjoy the walks near Mount Cook, so we decided to spend a day there. The drive is always interesting, too. I forget, in between, how dry inland South Canterbury is! It almost feels like a desert.

This is what we saw from the front seat, soon after leaving Ashburton. I think we had some tired people! The white cord, by the way, is a curtain-hanging cord. We strung it around the van, and hung pieces of fabric on it with clothespins at night when we slept in the van, for privacy. It worked well—but if we weren’t careful, like this day, it would fall down when we put down the sun visor.

As we traveled farther inland, the landscape got drier. (Toes are a great entertainment when you’re bored!)

This is the Burke’s Pass area.

We decided to stop for a few minutes at beautiful Lake Tekapo. The water is so blue! That is from glacial melt; there are tiny bits of sediment suspended in the water, and they make it reflect the blue of the sky.

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This church, on the shore of Lake Tekapo, is one of the most-photographed sites in New Zealand.

My beautiful girls! Esther was quite sunburned, still, from the day before.

Mr. Diligence took a picture of us trying to get the picture above.

Little Miss loves to pick flowers, anywhere and everywhere.

Miss Joy just wanted to play in the water.

Mr. Diligence

This is one of the several canals we crossed. They carry water for hydroelectricity.

Nearing Twizel—flat and dry!

Here is Lake Pukaki! Mount Cook is usually visible at the far end; this day, it was cloudy, so we couldn’t see the peaks.

Our friends have a pet bird, and our little ones loved it.

Ashburton Aviation Museum

January 31, 2021 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

When we were planning our trip, Esther and I decided that we wanted to go to The Book Barn, a huge used book store. We knew that the men and boys in our family, for the most part, would not be interested, and would be bored waiting for us, so she looked online for other attractions in the area. She discovered that Ashburton has an Aviation Museum, and the website made it look and sound very interesting—and it didn’t cost too much, either. So, on the third day of our trip, we split up. Esther and I and Miss Joy went in one van to the book shop, and everyone else went in the other van to Ashburton. We met them there for lunch, after they had been at the museum for a couple of hours, and then we took a quick tour through, as well.

Before we got on the road, we had a look at a project our host family’s grandfather is working on. This is the empty tomb, built into a hillside, and on a hilltop nearby, he plans to erect three crosses. Inside the tomb, facing the empty place representing where Jesus’ body would have lain, will be a bench to sit on, and Christian literature.

Miss Joy fell asleep immediately after we left.The father of the man of the family with we had spent the night owns this church, the Church of the Open Door. It is not used for services anymore, but he maintains it as a place for people to come in and pray or meditate any time they want to. He comes every Sunday to clean it.

A close-up of the prickly pear around the front.

Inside the church.It’s always fun to see this giant fish when we got through Rakaia.

The museum! It is at the Ashburton airport. The museum occupies three hangers. This photo was taken from the top of the restored control tower.

Little Miss wanted to show me the hospital plane. It was what she was most fascinated with.

Inside was a stretcher and a place for an attendant to sit.

Little Miss under the DC-3.

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Going inside the DC-3. This plane is fully operational, but it would cost a million dollars a day to pay for insurance to fly it.

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The DC-3 was probably the one Elijah was most fascinated with.

Someone was amused at this sign. They didn’t think they wanted to have to be rescued!

This helicopter was used during the Korean War to transport wounded soldiers away from the front. A stretcher was strapped on to each side, on the outside, with a hood to protect the wounded man from the blast of air while flying. The helicopter’s tail is in another part of the room; it was too big to leave on.

A jet engine.

A sprayer plane, used to spread fertilizer on hilly farms.This may have been the first plane ever flown. It was built at the same time as the Wright Brothers’ plane, and possibly flown first, but didn’t get the publicity theirs did.

The restored 1940s control tower. There was an airforce base near here during World War II.

Mr. Imagination’s favorite thing at the museum was this manual typewriter! He was fascinated by it.

We really enjoyed our visit to this museum. It was definitely worth spending time at! Two days a week, one of which happened to be the day we were there, volunteers come in to work on restoring the planes, and you can talk to them. The founder of the museum was there when we were, and Gayle and some of the boys spent a lot of time talking to him.
Here are a few seconds of video footage that Mr. Diligence got inside the larger hanger.

Holiday Trip

Thank you!