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You are here: Home / Archives for Kaikoura

Kaikoura

First Trip to Kaikoura Since the Earthquake

January 7, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s already been three weeks since Mr. Inventor went to Kaikoura with a couple of men from Cheviot. They took a load of food that had been donated. At that time, the only way into Kaikoura was the Inland Route from Waiau, and you could only go in convoy. A convoy departed from Waiau at 8:00 am to go to Kaikoura, and another left Kaikoura at 3:00 pm to go back. You had to sign up online a day or two ahead, and then wait for a text message late the evening before going, to confirm that the road would be open in the morning. Only a few days later, all restrictions on that road ended and it was open for two-way traffic. A week after Mr. Inventor’s trip, Highway One, the coastal route, was opened for daytime traffic. These pictures are from Mr. Inventor’s trip on the 15th of December, on the Inland Road in convoy.

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There were a lot of spectacular slips into the Conway River.

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Unloading the food in Kaikoura.

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A Navy ship was anchored offshore in Kaikoura.

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The banks of Lyell Creek sank; apparently all houses along it have been red-stickered, meaning they are not to be used. Thankfully, our friend who lives along this lane is just far enough away that her house is fine.

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Lots of twisted guard rails.

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Cracks across the hillside.

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The convoy forming to leave Kaikoura in the afternoon. Mr. Inventor rode in the truck at the back of the line.

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It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the bridge on the left is twisted one direction at one end and the other direction at the other end. The bridge to the right is a new one built since the quake to allow traffic to go through.

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This is a bridge just south of Kaikoura. Again, it’s hard to tell in the picture, but the road drops six or eight inches coming off the bridge.

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Another view of the twisted bridge with a temporary bridge beside it.

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Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: earthquake damage, Kaikoura

Kaikoura Before the Quake

December 2, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s almost unreal to think that we were in Kaikoura the day before the 7.8 earthquake of November 14, but it’s true. Everything was normal; we spent most of the day at church, then went across the street and over the bridge over Lyell Creek, then sat on the rocky beach for awhile. The boys had fun stacking rocks; Mr. Intellectual built several of these structures and then demolished them. Apparently, the seafloor rose about 2 meters here. They say that rocks are visible now that had never been seen before, and high tide now looks like low tide before! It will sure be interesting to see it when we can get back up there, but that will be a long time. The most optimistic estimate I’ve seen for opening the highway is six months from now.

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We enjoyed watching birds—this gull and the shags who were hanging out in the creek.

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Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean

Gore Bay and Kaikoura

November 25, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The Saturday that Gayle’s aunt and uncle were here, he took them and our children, and a couple of other visitors, out to Gore Bay. I stayed home to work on food for the weekend, so these are the pictures someone else took. Apparently, Little Miss has gotten past her fear of the sea!62-IMG_0860

They walked around to Port Robinson, and found some unusual things. This was a dead octopus they found washed up.

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A live sea urchin!

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Two elephant slugs.

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Including our family, we had 25 people on Sunday and Monday morning! This was when we had the conference at which Gayle’s uncle spoke. I took this picture Sunday morning just before breakfast.

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On our way to church, we stopped at a place from which you can see the Kaikoura Peninsula and the coast for a long ways around. We were treated to a closeup look at this bellbird, who was helping himself to nectar from this kowhai tree.

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After church, some of the party walked over the Kaikoura Peninsula. I went home to cook tea, but my photographer stayed to walk!

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That was a really good weekend. It was a lot of work to feed so many people, but so worth while.

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: gore bay, Kaikoura, Ocean

Kaikoura, Including a Plane Ride

November 13, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The Sunday after the funeral, we went to Kaikoura for church as usual, and took the two aunts (one of my sisters and one of Gayle’s) along. Both babies at church fell asleep during the afternoon meeting!22-IMG_0787

After we left church, we took our sisters to the Aquarium. The little ones loved the touch tank.

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The Aquarium is in a building on the New Wharf. When we came out, there was a fishing boat tying up to the wharf, and we watched it unloading. Then, it went out into the bay to anchor for the night.

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We went out to the Peninsula, where my sister let Mr. Imagination take some pictures. We saw seals, ducks, and seagulls.

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We climbed the steep path to the top of the Peninsula. The tide was high that afternoon, and the colors were amazing. This picture doesn’t even come close to doing the beauty justice!

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I was amused, when we came back down and Gayle was bringing the van to where we were, to see these seagulls catching a ride!

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A friend at church paid for a plane ride for our sisters, and there was room in the small plane for Esther and Mr. Diligence to go, too. They had amazing views of the mountains and the Peninsula.

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Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura

Snow!

August 30, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We got a little bit of snow this August. It wasn’t much; here at our house we had a tiny skiff one morning. Can you see the snow falling in this picture?01-IMG_0347

The little boys scraped up the snow that slid down the greenhouse and made a little snowman on a sled, but I don’t know if anyone got a picture of it. They were excited about the snow, even if there wasn’t much. The next morning when we went to church, the hills and mountains were gorgeous! We left early in case the road was slick, and kept four-wheel drive on till we got through the dangerous hills. 05-IMG_036406-IMG_036707-IMG_0371

Because we left for church early, and didn’t have any trouble, we had an extra 15 minutes before time for church to start, so we went out the the Peninsula. We hadn’t been out there in a long time, and it was fun to see the rocks, seals, and waves again.08-IMG_037509-IMG_037610-IMG_037811-IMG_0380

We certainly live in a beautiful place!

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean, Snow

Whale!

June 21, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We were driving to Kaikoura for church Sunday morning when suddenly one of the boys exclaimed, “There’s a whale!” Sure enough, just a few hundred meters offshore was a whale, apparently feeding on the surface in the middle of a small pod of dolphins! There was a fishing boat close by; apparently there was a large school of fish there. Of course, we stopped to watch–you don’t see a whale very often. What a special experience!

I think this is a dolphin.
I think this is a dolphin.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfuQ7HfEm5c]

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean, whales

Beaches: Timaru and Kaikoura

June 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s fun to look through Esther’s memory card every so often. She gets some good pictures, and happily lets me use them. I often either forget I have a camera, or actually don’t have it along, so I’m glad when she takes pictures to fill in the gaps. Here are a few more pictures from the day we walked to the lighthouse near Timaru.

Little Miss was watching someone climbing the outside of the lighthouse. She held on to that apple all the way out there and most of the way back!07-DSCF1862

Gayle helping Mr. Imagination down the steep cliff below the lighthouse. They walked back along the shoreline.

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Enjoying the view from a bench in front of the lighthouse.

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Mr. Inventor, Mr. Imagination, and Mr. Intellectual trying out a hut someone else built out of driftwood.10-DSCF1911

Mr. Diligence, Mr. Inventor, and Mr. Intellectual on a rock north of Kaikoura.

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Mr. Imagination pondering something!13-DSCF1948

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean, Timaru

Classic Cars, Snow, and Spoonbills

September 22, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Our trip to church Sunday was a little different from usual. Every year, this weekend, there is a classic car show in Kaikoura on Saturday, and the cars go back south on Sunday morning. There were around 600 cars at the show, we heard, and the boys counted 270 or so passing us! That sure adds interest to a one-hour trip we make nearly every week.IMG_2019IMG_2024IMG_2027IMG_2028

The other thing that made the trip unusual was snow. We drove through falling snow for about 10 minutes, and there was some slush on the road. That is the worst road conditions we’ve driven in in this country. It was sure pretty! This was the first and probably last snow for us this winter.IMG_2002

We especially noticed the wattle trees bending down with the weight of snow. On the way home in the afternoon, the snow was gone, but the wattle trees were still bowed down and a lot of limbs were broken off.

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On our way home, as we crossed a bridge just as the highway reached the sea, I looked at the river mouth and noticed a flock of spoonbills! We pulled off and Gayle and Mr. Intellectual went over to get a picture. The rest of us preferred to stay in the warm dry van.IMG_2041IMG_2043IMG_2046

Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean

Kaikoura

September 3, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The last Sunday my sister-in-law was here, three weeks ago already, we took her to Kaikoura for church. After church, we took her out to the Peninsula, of course. It was a cold, windy day, but beautiful all the same. I stayed in the van with little ones who didn’t need to get cold, but most of the family climbed the Peninsula.

I have never seen so many seals at the Peninsula! They must have been wanting to stay out of the cold water.

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While I waited, I watched this film crew. I have no idea what the man was talking about, but they were obviously filming him discussing something! They had a reflector to bounce light onto him, and a shade they held over him at times to get the light right—until it blew away into the water and they had to scramble down to get it.

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We drove around to South Bay, on the other side of the Peninsula, and while there I noticed this incredible cloud formation. It was obviously snowing in the mountains!

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I enjoyed seeing these cows on such a steep hill. One had just raced downhill.

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Filed Under: Away From Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, Ocean

February Pictures

March 24, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’m not sure what was happening in this picture, but I thought it was a cute one of boys # 4 and 6.

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A late-evening game of Dutch Blitz (thanks to one of my sisters, we can now all play at once—thank you!).Left to right are boys # 4, 3, 1, 2, and 5, and Esther.

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Here are some pictures taken on the way to church by boy # 5. Most of the pictures he took were too blurry or sideways, but there were a few good ones. The first is along the Kaikoura coast, with a railway tunnel on the left; the second is the Kaikoura airport; third is a creek just north of Kaikoura; fourth is a restaurant on the corner where we turn off the highway to go to church; and fifth is our church building with the new Kaikoura museum/library/council chambers building rising behind it.

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And, last but not least, this is only part of the cabbage crop. We brought in and put up literally bushels of cabbage (probably about nine altogether).

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Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Kaikoura, random pictures

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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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