Lewis Pass

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!

Fun With Friends

July 20, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, a friend brought her son over to spend the week with our boys. We love to go visit them and be at their church when we can, so the following weekend we took him home and spent the night there. Most of the week he was with us we were at home, although one day Esther took all the boys to Pancake Rocks (possibly some pictures to follow in another post, if/when I get around to looking at a couple of memory cards that aren’t home right now!). I only took two pictures here at home that week—have a look at what can happen in our living room, with lots of boys living here! Simon was trying to keep the other two boys in the living room, and he succeeded.

Here’s the other picture. I don’t know what Esther was showing them, but apparently they were interested! I’m also not sure who took the picture.

On our way to our friends’ house, we stopped at a small parking area just 1 km down from the top of Lewis Pass, on the Canterbury side, for a short stretch break. It was cold, but so beautiful there! Esther decided she wanted a picture of all the boys, so they lined up. First they tried putting their chins on each other’s shoulders; that would have worked except that Mr. Imagination was in the sunshine so his face is blurred out. Then, they tried the other pose. Their friend claims our boys as his brothers!

We got to their house in time for lunch, which gave the children a lot of time to play. The younger ones built this hut from a bunch of stuff they found laying around, and played in and around it for hours! See Mr. Imagination peeking out? The older boys went out on the hills, as they love to do there. They killed two geese and dressed them for eating. Simon was in his glory! He loves to hunt, but has rarely caught anything.

Once it got dark, the little ones had to come in. Little Miss played for a couple of hours with a kitchen set. In this first picture, she is listening to her brothers trying to tell her that she should cook worms. I didn’t quite get the most horrified expression, but trust me, she was NOT impressed!

Fun at Lewis Pass

December 18, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

On our way home from visiting Simon three weeks ago, we stopped for a few minutes just this side of Lewis Pass. The St James Walkway took off from a small parking area here. We only walked a short way from the car park to where a good view was promised. What a view! As you can see, the day was clear and sunny, and it was absolutely gorgeous there. Just for fun, we took several pictures.

The three of us happened to have on our matching dresses that day.

All six of the children who are currently living with us.

Mr. Sweetie is goofy about pictures. He didn’t want his picture to be taken with the other children, but on the way back to the car park he wanted it taken on top of this rock!

This post is linked up here.

Off on a Holiday!

November 20, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We don’t get to take very many trips, which is fine with me, being a homebody, but ever since May we’ve been planning to go to the West Coast while Mom is here. Gayle has a very hard time getting permission to take time off from work, even though he is legally entitled to it, so we were excited a couple of months ago when his request for a week right now was finally approved—after waiting three or four months for his boss to make the decision! We borrowed a neighbor’s pop-top camper again, and Wednesday morning last week packed it and the van with all we thought we’d need for a week of camping, and then took off!

We made it across the range of hills directly to the west of us, and passed through the little village of Waiau, then crossed the Waiau River on this long one-lane bridge. It’s a good thing it has a passing bay in the middle, as someone was coming toward us and had to pull off for us to pass! Then, we went up through wilder and wilder hills towards Lewis Pass.

We saw snow on the high peaks as we drove toward the mountains, and then as we got closer could see that it was snowing at that moment, up high! When we reached the top of the pass, there was actually snow on the ground! We haven’t seen snow up close for over two years, so we stopped a few minutes to let the boys check it out. Our youngest had never touched snow, and he was thrilled. His biggest brother was very happy to help him investigate this new stuff.

The terrain changed as we went down the west side of the pass.

We had to laugh at the snowplow we saw—rather a contrast to the ones in Michigan! It had come over the pass behind us.

When we reached Reefton, we could tell something was different from home—we smelled coal smoke in the air! Apparently, that’s what people heat with there. We saw a coal mine near the township (village), and a train of coal cars on a siding.

Soon, we were driving along the Buller River. There is a pretty wild gorge that the river, and the road, go through. One place, a road had to be carved out of the cliff. As you can see, there is only one lane! Quite the engineering feat.