Mountains

Tramp to Elizabeth Hut

April 25, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the middle of February, Gayle and all five of the boys went on a tramp to Elizabeth Hut, in the mountains to the south of us, with several other men and children from our church. I stayed home with the girls, and with the help of a neighbor, did the milking. Mr. Diligence took his camera along and took these photos. Here they are getting ready to head out. Simon is in the center, and Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination to the right in the photo.

They tramped up a river valley.

These little fish were found trapped in some puddles that were drying up.

This is a hot spring partway up to the hut. At some point in the past, someone made a concrete pool, but it’s in bad shape now.

Inside the hut! There are only six bunks, so the men got those and most of the young boys spread their sleeping bags on the floor.

They headed back the next morning. Soon after setting out on the 4-5 hour tramp, Simon twisted his ankle, and just kept going. He could hardly hobble by the time they got out, and didn’t walk on his foot again for a few days.

They all thoroughly enjoyed this tramp, and want to do it again!

Castle Hill and Beyond

January 20, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After we left Cave Stream, on the second day of our trip, we went to Castle Hill. We have been there two other times, but the boys have never been able to spend as much time exploring the rocks as they want to, so they wanted to go back.

Mr. Diligence took a few pictures while we drove between Cave Stream and Castle Hill.

There is our van ahead of the one he was in.We quickly separated into groups to walk out to the rocks. Lest you think this photo has been artificially colored, that is the way the sky looked that day! It was so blue I couldn’t stop looking at it!

We almost didn’t stop when we saw how full the carpark was, but then we found space in a second park, to the right here.

The boys, of course, hustled out to the rocks quickly and started climbing.

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Mr. Diligence, Simon, and Mr. Sweetie

This is a tired baby! Esther and I soon decided to take her back to the van and give her a nap on the bed. Though it was quite a hot day, it was very pleasant in that van with all the windows and the side door open. There was a nice breeze, and it has a high roof, which means the heat isn’t trapped down where we sat. She got to sleep for an hour before we left.

Gayle and Little Miss did some exploring on their own, and had fun experimenting with the camera on his new phone.

Mr. Diligence had his camera with him, too, so here are perspectives from high up on the rocks. This is Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie.

Simon and Elijah had to help each other up this section. It was nearly perpendicular to the ground.

Mr. Sweetie pondering life from the top of a rock.

Wild roses The adventurers are coming back! Esther zoomed her camera in to take this from the van. Left to right are Mr. Imagination, Simon, Elijah, Mr. Diligence, and Mr. Sweetie.

Soon after we left Castle Hill, we went over Porter’s Pass, leaving the high basin.

Then, we were suddenly down on the plains! The road drops fast as you come down from the summit of Porter’s.

We spent this night with friends. Their house was too small for any extras, so we happily slept in the vans in their driveway. After a day in the sun, everyone slept soundly, though our faces felt hot!

Cave Stream

January 17, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On the second day of our holiday, we packed up the vans in Arthur’s Pass and headed out about mid-morning. Our first destination for the day was Cave Stream. Gayle and Simon had gone through it four years ago, and now all the boys, as well as Little Miss, wanted to go through. Esther and I did not! We don’t think it’s that fun to wade through waist-deep, cold water, in the dark!

Here is some of the scenery we enjoyed on our way down from the pass, through the high basin. It was such a gorgeous day!

There were a lot of cars at the carpark when we arrived.

It was incredibly beautiful there! Pictures can’t do it justice—you have to actually be there to really get a feel for the beauty. This is only a tiny glimpse. You could turn around in a complete circle and see amazing scenery all the way around. Also, in a photo you can’t capture the feel of the warm breeze, the fresh mountain air and the scent of the flowers, and the sounds of sheep and lambs baaing off in the distance. Such a wonderful experience!

Mr. Imagination

I saw this wild rose bush beside the track.

The entrance to the cave is that hole down at the base of the cliff.

The boys ran on ahead, leaving Gayle and Little Miss to catch up with them at the cave entrance.

After seeing them off, Esther and I walked on up the trail to the exit of the cave, where the stream goes in. She carried Miss Joy; I carried the security blanket.

The stream used to flow here, but when it eroded back enough that it found a way underground, this streambed dried out.

The stream goes underground here, and this is the exit when you go through the cave.

After our crew came out of the cave and put on dry clothing, we laid out our picnic. We cooked the last of the hamburgers we had for supper the night before.

Miss Joy put on her big sister’s gumboots and walked around the carpark.

Five Thousand Sheep! (includes video)

June 21, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A week ago, we went to visit some friends in North Canterbury. It was a beautiful day for traveling, with clear skies all the way over the mountains. This was about half an hour from home. The mist rising from the river, in front of the mountain, was stunningly beautiful!

The tops of the mountains, around the pass, were covered with snow.

We reached the other side of the divide, and as we left the highway and traveled up to our friends’ farm, we saw more snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Then, we arrived on their road, and saw this mob of sheep coming toward us! They move their 5,000+ sheep from the hills to their flat farm every winter for grazing, and this was the day of the big move. We’ve heard about this move for years, but I never expected to get to see it. What a nice surprise that it happened the day we went to visit! Our three oldest boys joined the ones who were walking behind the sheep, and helped them get the rest of the way to their destination.

The scenery continued to be stunning as we drove on up the road into the hills to their house. What a beautiful country!

I took a video of the mob of sheep as we drove through. Enjoy a tiny bit of our experience!

Taking a Tramp Part 3

May 17, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here is the last installment of Mr. Diligence’s story about the boys’ tramp. Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. I have added captions to the pictures in those two posts, in case you want to go back and read more about them.

As we went on we slowly went down. We came to a scree slide that we walked across. P wasn’t feeling well. We gave him the last of our water then went on. Simon and J were carrying his pack again.

Mr. Intellectual going onto the scree slide.

Taking a break on an island on the scree slide.

An hour later we stopped for a break. We still hadn’t found water. Fifteen minutes later we found water. It was delicious. P was able to take his pack again. We came back into the bush as we went down. It was around 4:00 p.m.

Simon with an antler he found. See the trees in the left background with red/brown under the bunches of green leaves? Some locals call them monkey trees; the branches go every which way like a Dr. Seuss tuttle-tuttle tree.

These four pictures show the descent to the river.

We followed a creek down to the river. We knew approximately where the hut was. We searched for half an hour, then finally found the hut. We had rice and tuna for tea.

The track going out to civilization from the hut.

Looking back at the scree slope they had crossed the day before. This was taken after leaving the hut on Sunday morning. They thought the scree slope looked like Australia!

Sunday morning we left the hut at 8:30 a.m. We found the track and followed that. The track eventually came out on the river. We followed the river for a while, then went back to the track. We saw a couple blue ducks. Later we couldn’t keep following the creek, so we guessed there had to be a track. We finally found the track. We cleared it a little so other people could find it. One of the track markers fell down so we used a couple of J’s zip ties to fix it. Later we saw another couple of blue ducks. Blue ducks are extremely rare. They are grayish with a white bill, and on their underside they have a slight reddish tint.

Three pairs of these ducks have been sighted in this region; this group saw two of them.

There were a few boulders in the creek the size of a small house. We ate lunch near the hot springs. Then we walked out. We got home at 3:30 p.m.

Taking a Tramp Part 2

May 10, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

This is the rest of Mr. Diligence’s story.

From Elizabeth Hut we wanted to go to Cone Creek Hut. There is no trail going between. We would have had to go back to the hot springs and back up another track. So we decided to find our way over the mountain.

That morning P said he was sick. We asked if we should just head down. He said he could make it to Cone Creek. We set out at 9:00 a.m. We headed up the mountain behind Elizabeth Hut. It wasn’t very steep at first. As we headed up we were climbing over logs. We came to a few cliffs but were able to skirt around them or over. After about an hour we had to go on all fours. We stopped for a rest then went on. By 11:00 a.m., we had made it to the ridge line that we were going to follow up. Half an hour later we came to a cliff where we could look down the valley. J took both tents so P wouldn’t have to carry as much weight. We decided to have lunch at the top of a steep climb. We got to the top and P collapsed and promptly fell to sleep. J crawled up and collapsed.

Looking up the valley during a rest stop.

The bushes from the center to the right of this photo are called turpentine bushes.

The ditch is a fault line. Mr. Intellectual is about in the center of the photo. They walked through the lower right area here, up to where he is and on.

They walked up the spur in the center of the photo to where Mr. Diligence is standing to take the picture.

We had lunch around 12:00 p.m. Simon and C took both tents so J wouldn’t have as much weight. P was feeling a lot better after his rest. We continued on and were soon out of the bush. P was not doing very well so J and Simon started taking turns carrying his pack. We got to the top by 2:00 p.m. We had climbed about 1000 meters. We walked along the ridge. In one place on the ridge there was a rock face that we could go around. But Simon and C decided to climb over. By that time P had taken back his pack.

Going on up the ridge. This is C, J, and P.

Looking ahead where they needed to go. They walked across the scree slope, up to the top near the right side of this picture, then followed the very top of the ridge.

Mr. Intellectual, then Simon, then P on the ridge.

Looking down the valley from the top of the ridge.

Looking back to where J and C were coming along behind.

A rock formation that some climbed over–and Mr. Diligence and some others were “smart enough to go around.”

Mr. Intellectual taking a rest on top of the world.

Lichens on rocks on the top of the ridge.

We were having a rest on the ridge before we began to go down. Some chamois ran below us. We saw one standing on a hill about a hundred meters away. Some of the others started to baa. The chamois came running toward us and got within ten meters. Then it started running circles around us. P said he had never seen that before.

Mr. Diligence took a couple of video clips of the young chamois running around, so I put them together here. It was disoriented, and trying to find the rest of the flock. The baaing in the video is the boys/men trying to get it to come closer. It ran all the way around them, and then off to join the others.

to be continued…

Taking a Tramp Part 1

May 3, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

In early March, before we had any idea that such a thing as lockdown would happen, our three oldest boys went on a long tramp with three men who are part of our little housechurch. They backpacked to a couple of huts up in the mountains, and actually climbed to the top of one mountain. They were gone from Friday noon till early afternoon on Sunday, and came home ready to fall into bed (and needing showers!) but on top of the world and excited about doing it again! Mr. Diligence needed to write a story for our writing group, so I assigned him to write about the tramp, and email his story to Grandma. He also gave me permission to share it here, along with his photos. He wrote the story in two parts, so watch for Part 2 next week!

A few weeks ago J wanted to take a tramp up in the Haupiri valley up behind Gloriavale. Of course we boys wanted to go along. So we gathered supplies over the last few weeks. We left here on Friday at 1:00 p.m. We picked up J and went on to Gloriavale to sign at the office. They like to know so they won’t send hunters up there. We got to the parking lot and met C there. We waited for about half an hour for P but finally decided to take off walking. We strapped on our packs and walked up a four wheel drive track. P caught up to us in his truck, so we chucked our packs on the back and hopped in. We drove in for about 20 minutes then we parked.

Walking up the Haupiri River gorge, about half an hour after taking off.

Consulting the maps on the way up the river.

Then we started walking. We came to a few mud holes. But we got around those. After about 10 minutes we got to the end of the four wheel drive track. We walked up the dry river bed for a little while till P found the track that went through the bush. After a while we came out of the bush onto Peppertree Flat where there are a lot of peppertrees. They have a pinkish reddish leaf. We went back into the bush and walked on a trail for another half an hour.

Pepper Tree Flat. The red tree is a Pepper Tree.

Then one of the straps on E’s (Mr. Intellectual) pack broke. We had some flimsy safety pins that we put on. They held it together for a little while. Then we crossed the river. We walked for a little while then P said that we had probably missed the hot springs. Since we had extra time we dropped the packs on the track and went looking for it. We found the hot springs and spent a bit of time there. We found a bungee strap there so E used that to help hold his pack on. We walked up the river and across a few slips. At one slip Simon and J pushed a big rock off the bank.

A rest stop on the way up the valley to Elizabeth Hut.

Mr. Intellectual waiting for everyone else to catch up.

Simon and J trying to push the boulder off the side of the track, into the river. They did it–a boulder about three feet in diameter!

We got to Elizabeth Hut at 7:20 p.m. It was quite a nice hut. It had six beds and a table with three small benches. There was a small wood fire. P got the fire going and roasted us all. We ended up opening some windows. The hut was up on a flat area above the river. The roof was red with cream colored walls. J had broght some pasta that we cooked and had for tea. E’s and my packs had both broken. Thankfully J had some zip ties which he used to fix them. He did a good enough job that they lasted till we got home.

The river, viewed from the front of the hut.

To be continued….

A Flooded River, and Mountains

October 5, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have had a lot of rain lately. One day, someone told us the river was quite high, so Esther and the younger ones walked down to take a look at it. It was up at least a meter higher than usual at that point. (Last week when we went down to the riverbed for a picnic, there was evidence that it had been a couple of meters higher than normal at some point recently!) We live about a quarter of a mile from the river, and could hear it roaring loudly from here. Usually, you can see a wide stretch of rocks here, going about halfway across the river.

Two weeks ago, we went “over the hill” to visit friends in Canterbury. Soon after we got over Lewis Pass, we had people feeling carsick, so stopped along this river for several minutes to let tummies settle down. It was so beautiful! Such a clear, blue sky and clean air, and the snow in the distance.

This was after we got out of the mountains, and I was looking back.

We enjoyed seeing this herd of Belted Galloways. Those calves were so cute! I wish the light had been better, but this was the best I could do for a photo.

We very much enjoyed two days of meetings with our church family over there. I took this photo just before we left, while I was sitting in the van feeding the baby. It was hard to leave!

Going home—more snow-capped mountains!

Several months ago, I wrote a review about a science program we were using. I just got an email that they have a new resource available, free. It looks really good, and a lot of fun. There are heaps of video lessons in it, and if they are anything like the ones we watched from this company already, we’ll learn a lot from them and be fascinated at the same time. I look forward to enjoying these soon! Go to the landing page for the Mighty Feathers Science Goodie to see what you think. If you like the course and want to subscribe to other topics, use this link, and enter the code loh12 for $5.00 off your purchase. I’d like to know what you think of the Mighty Feathers course, if you try it out!

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!

June 2019 photos Part 1

July 6, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I have a lot of random photos this month! So many I’ll have to divide them into two posts, so watch for the next installment in a week.

One Sunday afternoon, around the beginning of the month, the mountains were covered in snow and so beautiful! All the children decided to go on a bike ride up the road and enjoy the beautiful winter sunshine. Esther took this picture.

Simon goes through a lot of mayonnaise. Every work morning, he fries two eggs for his breakfast, spreads mayo on two slices of bread and puts the eggs on top of that, then eats them with a large cup of creamy tea. Because he uses so much mayonnaise, he ends up making it for us quite often in the evening, to make sure he’ll have what he needs in the morning!When I took the children to Hokitika for the homeschooler’s art day, we had another gorgeous, sunny day. I asked Mr. Diligence, who was in the back seat of the car, to take some pictures for me. This is the bridge going out of our town; it’s scheduled to be replace within a year and a half.

Looking downstream from the bridge, down the Ahaura River. Its confluence with the Grey River is just downstream—the Grey is under the line of fog. See the snow on top of the Paparoa Mountains? The Tasman Sea is just the other side of those mountains.

Going on down the road towards Greymouth!

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Another view of the Paparoas, across a dairy farm. The Grey, again, is under that line of fog.

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This is the bridge my sons built me over a ditch in the paddock our house cow is currently living in. They built it strong enough that a couple of big boys standing on it can’t make it sag! I requested the chicken wire to be stapled on so I don’t slip on wet or frosty mornings—and I’ve been very glad for it! During the summer, I milked at about the place the fence turns, just above the end of the bridge, but the cow didn’t like crossing the ditch after the rains started, so I knew I would have to cross it myself. The new milking shed is just behind you, if you were standing where this picture is taken. By the way, I plan to get a photo of the cow in the shed sometime, but I’m milking before sunrise and after sunset right now, because our days are so short, so there isn’t enough light! It’s working well, though. She has learned to walk right in and put her head in the proper place, and the morning it was pouring, I was very thankful for the roof.

Midwinter harvest! I got the cabbage, leeks and carrots from the garden, and everything else came from the greenhouse. We are enjoying this feast.

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One evening while we had family worship, Mr. Imagination was acting up, so I told him to do 5 push-ups. Mr. Intellectual and Simon couldn’t resist; they had to join in. Simon did 20, I believe, before he had to give up. Mr. Intellectual saw his brother grabbing the camera, and jumped up on his chair before the picture was taken.

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Mountains

Thank you!