Holiday Trip

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!

Timaru, Part 2

April 21, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Saturday night tea was a barbeque at the house we stayed at. The people we stayed with last year, the parents of the man of the house where we stayed this year, were there. He is a baby-lover, and I was amused when he shouldered me aside to take my baby from his wife when my baby was crying! She liked him and settled down on his shoulder several times, like she doesn’t do for very many people.

Sunday morning was a normal church service, then lunch at the parent’s house, followed by an afternoon service, tea at church, a gospel service in the evening, and then a singing at the parent’s house again. What a day! It was wonderful. These pictures are all of the singing in the evening.

Our hosts for the weekend:

Grandpa saves the evening again! I was so thankful for the help with our baby.

I think this one missed out on hearing what the point of the evening was! He had fun with the toys while we sang.

Monday we headed home! First, we got a picture of the family we stayed with. Their hospitality was amazing!We stopped several times, and the last stop was a long one. We needed to pick up a rooster someone was giving us, and when that man and Gayle get together, they will talk a long time. We got home in time to unload and eat before bedtime, though. Mr. Sweetie got hold of my camera and used it to amuse himself all the way home. I deleted most of the pictures he took, but here are a few, including a selfie: This little girl slept most of the way home, to everyone’s relief.

Timaru, Part 1

April 20, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend for a conference—a weekend of church meetings. The Assembly in Timaru had invited a number of speakers, and four came, two from Australia and two from the north part of the North Island. It was a wonderful weekend of Scripture teaching and fellowshipping! We went last year, and enjoyed it so much that we had been talking all year of going again. (And now, the boys are talking about NEXT year already! So, if anyone from Timaru reads this, know that some people will be very much disappointed if you don’t hold the Easter Conference again!)

We left here about 8:00 on Good Friday morning, and didn’t have to stop once! We made it to Timaru in time for lunch at noon, and attended both the services in the afternoon. After tea at church, we returned to the house at which we were staying, and got our camp set up. Esther and I and the baby slept in the pop-top camper we borrowed for the trip, that night, and Gayle and all the boys slept in three tents in the yard. After the tents were pitched we visited in the house for awhile, and then just as we were getting ready to send the children out to bed, they found a distraction—stories read by the man of the house!

Saturday, there was only one service, mid afternoon, so everyone who stayed at the house we did went to a park and the beach in the morning. Timaru is beautiful! There was a fire in the late 1800s that wiped out the business district, so everything was rebuilt with stone. The buildings are gorgeous!The boys really enjoyed the park. A man was there with several miniature horses, which you could ride for $5. It was free to sit on them, though, and Mr. Imagination loved that.

The man in the red jersey here was one of the speakers. He had had to leave his wife and six children behind to come, and was missing them.The boys loved the playground equipment, too. Left to right are the man with the horses, Gayle, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Sweetie, ?, Mr. Handy Man, and Mr. Inventor.

Mr. Sweetie on the swing.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Imagination, upside down on the swings!

Left to right are Mr. Diligence, Mr. Inventor, ?, ?, and Mr. Handy Man.

One thing that fascinated me about the beach was how it is receding. When the port was built, it changed the currents. Now, sand is deposited in Caroline Bay.When Europeans first came, the beach was at the base of the cliffs those buildings are on! Our host remembers when it was about halfway between there and where it is now, over a quarter mile out!

The port was at the edge of the park, clearly visible from where we were, so after we left the park, we drove through what we could of the port before we went back for lunch. They were loading a couple of huge freight liners. The four cranes you can see in the middle of this picture are all on one ship!

This is a view of the beach and town from the port.

After leaving the port, we drove past this row of old warehouses.

Shantytown and Arthur’s Pass

December 18, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The final day of our trip to the West Coast, we stopped at Shantytown, a historic village, for several hours. I didn’t take many pictures there, because I had gotten to the point where I mainly needed to sit. Here are a few, though. One of the first things we did was to ride the steam train. They take you on about a 20-minute ride, back into the bush, then back. Most people got off on the way back at the restored sawmill, then toured the gold-mining area. I opted to go back to the village where I could sit and wait.

This enormous stump was at the end of the line—apparently a sample of what they logged out of the area 100 years or more ago.

Esther got this shot of our youngest at the sawmill.

While I was waiting, I amused myself watching Oriental (probably Japanese) tourists taking picture after picture of each other and themselves, and watching this weka go in and out of building after building.

We also did the touristy kind of things—posing the boys in a stagecoach and playing around at the jail. The boys shoved their daddy into the jail—but a couple of them got locked in with him! Right to left, this is Seth, James, Nathan, Simon, Elijah, and Joseph.

This is Seth, Nathan, and Elijah, with Joseph just visible inside the jail to the left.The two youngest enjoyed this play fire engine!And then, we were on the road again! We had originally planned to camp in the mountains that night and arrive home the next day, but the weather was cold and damp and we decided to push on for home. Towing a camper up Arthur’s Pass is a slightly risky proposition, with a 16% grade for several miles, but we made it. The van did heat up (we have some kind of radiator problem at the moment), so we stopped at an overlook at the top to cool off. That afforded quite a view of the Otira Viaduct, which we had just crossed.

This structure allows a waterfall to cross the road, just below the Viaduct.

This is the road we were to take next, going east across the Pass.

There were a lot of keas at the overlook. They are a wild mountain parrot, but not afraid of anything—and they love to eat rubber and plastic! We had to ward them off the open windows of the van so they wouldn’t eat the weatherstripping, but they did manage to eat part of the skylight of the camper. Naughty birds!

And then, we were over the Pass and on the dry side of the island. The scenery on this side is much different! This top picture is Castle Hill. We had hoped to stop there, but it was getting too late.

And, one more picture from the West Coast that I didn’t get stuck in anywhere else. As we drove the highway along the coast south of Hokitika, I was amazed at the trees. It was so obvious that the prevailing wind is from the sea!

And speaking of wind, we arrived home to find damage from strong winds while we were gone. The chimney above the kitchen had fallen on the roof, and broken the light directly below it, and a row of willow trees lost their tops. One tree fell on this shed. The fellows spent the day after we got home fixing broken things and cutting wood.

Franz Josef Glacier

December 13, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After we left Fox Glacier, on Friday evening of our trip, we tried to find a campground in the Fox Glacier Township. We knew it was supposed to rain, so we wanted a place where we could put part of the family in a cabin. The only place we could find cost about twice what we had paid the two previous nights! We decided to drive the half hour to Franz Josef and see if we could find a better place. The first place we checked out would have cost about three times as much, so we ended up at another of the chain we had tried in Fox Glacier. Still very expensive, but the best option we could find for that night. When the rain came down in torrents most of the night, leaving puddles all over, we were glad we had gotten a roof for the ones who were to have tented it! In the morning, then, we were thankful to see the sun, to dry out the camper before we closed it up. We were also treated to this glimpse of the mountains!

After breakfast, packing up, and family worship, we drove to the glacier. It was a much easier walk than at Fox Glacier, since the track hadn’t washed out. Again, the faster members of the family went ahead, and Mom and I walked at the pace of a two-year-old. Life is quite interesting, viewed from that perspective! Once again, I’ve borrowed most of these pictures from my daughter. I let our oldest boy use my camera, but her pictures are better. There were, once again, many waterfalls along the rocky path. Everything we walked on was once under the glacier! It is retreating rapidly. This is about where we slowpokes turned around. We got a good view of the glacier, and decided that if we didn’t want the rest of the crew to pass us up and have to wait for us, we’d better turn back. We got about halfway back, and suddenly some European tourists, passing us, exclaimed about the glacier. We turned to look, and the sun had come out on the ice! What a glorious sight! The picture Mom took, below, does not do it justice.

And, here are a few more pictures from closer-up.

Above: our oldest two, Esther and Seth. Below: Elijah, Simon, James.

At one point along the trail, they found a chunk of ice from the glacier. Esther had a plastic bag to protect her camera, so they brought the ice back to the van to show the rest of us.

Gayle and Joseph—on the top of the world!

Be prepared for danger!

A few of the boys raced back to the van ahead of the rest. I gave them permission to explore another trail, to the river below the glacier. They apparently took these pictures there. This is Elijah and Simon.

What a wonderful chance to explore a special part of God’s creation! We felt especially blessed when, just before all the explorers joined us back at the van, the heavens opened and rain poured most of the rest of the day! The weather had cleared just for a little while that morning, long enough to allow us to see the glacier.

Fox Glacier

December 9, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

The day after we visited Pancake Rocks, on our West Coast trip, we drove several hours farther south to Fox Glacier. We enjoyed some stunning sights along the way, such as this wall of rock as we came into Greymouth,

and this road/rail bridge just south of Greymouth. (Well, maybe that one isn’t stunning—just unusual!)

This mailbox (apparently) was beside the bridge, where we had to stop to wait for oncoming traffic to cross the bridge before we did.

As it got near lunchtime, we needed a place to take a break and eat lunch, so we followed signs off the highway a mile or two to this spot by the bluest river I’ve ever seen. The blue comes from glacial melt, I believe. We ended up leaving in a hurry, though, because the toilets were closed for painting and some of us were desperate!

The road from Franz Josef Glacier, which we passed up that day, to Fox Glacier, was lined with incredible ferns!

We finally made it to the vicinity of Fox Glacier late in the afternoon. First we drove to a spot that promised views of the glacier, from the south side of the river. The road up to that spot was amazing enough:

A short walk through the rain forest took us to where we could, indeed, catch a glimpse of it!

We could just make out the end of the glacier at the bottom of that valley, about where the waterfalls come down.

The shape of this mountain was intriguing!

As we got back into the van, some of the boys asked if they could run down the road to where we had seen a sign for warm springs. Sure—good way to burn a bit of energy! They took off running, and even though it must have been a good mile or two, they beat us. Yes, it was downhill, which I’m sure is the reason they got there so fast. They were dipping their toes in when we arrived.

We then drove back to the main road and crossed to the north side of the river, where a sign indicated glacier access. This turned out to be a trail that led you to within something like 200 meters of the glacier, which is retreating fairly quickly. The first part of the trail had been wiped out by a slip, or landslide, and foot traffic was temporarily rerouted up a muddy, steep hillside, along a level, muddy, slippery trail, and back down another steep, muddy, slippery slope to the nice gravel path! Mom decided she shouldn’t try to tackle the climb, so she waited in the van. I wanted to see the glacier, so gave it a try, with the help of a walking stick my sweet second son found me—and made it through that worst part! The rest was easy, but I turned back, with our youngest, when we got to where I could see the glacier. Therefore, these pictures are Esther’s—thank you, Esther, for sharing. It was worth the hike to see the glacier!

My husband and Joseph, the second-youngest, at the glacier.