Mountains

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!

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

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.

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.

Timaru Trip

May 4, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend, as we have since 2014. As always, it was a wonderful time of worshipping and hearing the Word preached, and spending time with many friends, both people we have known for a long time and those we just met for the first time. I took a few pictures of the spectacular scenery on the way and on the way home—but never took the time to pull my camera out of my purse while we were down there!

The sun rose while we were going through the mountains; here we are starting to head up toward Arthur’s Pass from the west.

After we went over Arthur’s Pass, as we approached Porter’s Pass, we noticed a thin line of snow just along the tops of the mountains.

Awhile later, once we were down on the plains, we looked back, and could see the other side of those same mountains!

We took a route we haven’t taken before, and got to enjoy the gorgeous Rakaia Gorge.

On our way home, we enjoyed the spectacular scenery again. This is between Porter’s and Arthur’s Passes, again.

New Year’s Tramp

February 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Gayle took the three oldest boys, and two of their friends, on a long tramp just after New Year’s Day. They started at Windy Point, and finished at Lake Taylor. They reckon they did 59 kilometers in two days—that’s a lot of walking over rough terrain! Unfortunately, Mr. Diligence forgot his camera, so the only photographic record of the trip is a few photos Gayle took with his phone, which are not very good but do help to preserve a few memories! This was a stop for lunch. They cooked 2-minute noodles.

Some scenery along the trail.

Resting along a stream.

They crossed four of this style of bridges.

Sometimes the track was easy….

…and sometimes it was not! This creek was a series of waterfalls, much steeper than the picture shows.

I went across the mountains the second day to pick them up, with the three youngest children. We stopped for 40 minutes at the beginning of the track and walked to the first swing bridge.

The Boyle River is so beautiful!

The road back in to Lake Taylor to pick them up was incredible! It took me well over an hour to drive the 35 kilometers on the dirt road. The scenery was amazing—when I could look at it! The road took most of my attention. I managed to grab one quick photo on a relatively safe stretch (I was driving very slowly) and got another on the way out. This is part of the Hurunui River.

Even though I have never seen my boys so tired, they loved it and want to do it again—but they say they will allow three days next time so they can enjoy it more.

Arthur’s Pass

December 15, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About a month ago, the children and I had to go to Christchurch to renew our American passports. We left the city in good time and headed back across the mountains to our side of the island. The plan was to drop the older four children off at a Bible Study we often attend, to go home with Gayle, while I took the younger ones home. We thought we had some extra time, so when we reached the top of Arthur’s Pass we decided to stop at a nature walk we had enjoyed a couple of years ago. The older ones all went ahead, and I stayed behind at Little Miss’s slower pace. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and the flowers, and the break from the city and the van where we had been all day—but ended up arriving half an hour late at the Bible Study. It was worth taking the time to stop anyway!

Some of the scenery we enjoyed driving up to the pass:

This is a very noisy creek we crossed on the way from the carpark to the walking track.

The road had only reopened that morning after a rain storm washed out bridges a few days before. I think they got 3-400 mm of rain in two days (that’s about 12-16 inches). Normally, we would have driven through here to another car park, but we decided the van wouldn’t handle this washout very well!

We enjoyed the many alpine flowers that were in bloom.

These huge leaves belong to the Mount Cook lily, which was in bloom farther along the track than I reached.

Looking back along the highway towards the Canterbury side of the pass.

Little Miss ran ahead of me. She was enjoying her freedom!

April 2018 Pictures

June 3, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Ok, time to finish cleaning out the folder of pictures from April. This first set was taken on our way home from Timaru over Easter. We came home via Arthur’s Pass, and I couldn’t believe the colors on this mountain side, which was, I believe, somewhere near Porter’s Pass on the way to Arthur’s. I know we’ve driven past this mountain a number of times, but somehow the light conditions made it just glow, even though the sun wasn’t hitting it.

This was a cloud front we saw. The upper part of the sky is actually a thick cloud, even if it doesn’t quite look like it here.

A few minutes later, it started raining, and poured the rest of our way home!

I often make a batch of “fudge”, with peanut butter, carob powder, coconut oil, and flake coconut. Mr. Diligence loves to cut it up for me so that he can eat some of it, and this time he was clowning around pretending he would eat the whole thing!

Little Miss refused to take her nap this day, and for about the first time in her life she just fell asleep on the couch when she was looking at a book!

Mr. Imagination loves the cats!

This is what I saw in the living room one morning. She told me afterward, “Mommy, I was enjoying that book.”

When some friends from Canterbury came to visit on weekend, we walked down to the river. The boys, of course, had to throw stones.

Sheep and Trees

November 24, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The week after the funeral, Gayle’s aunt and uncle arrived from America. Our sisters were still here for a couple of days, so we took all of them to Hawarden, to the farm on which our nephew is working for a few months. The farmer, a friend of ours, moved some sheep into another paddock so we could see the dogs working, and then he cut down some trees. He was taking out a stand of pine trees so he could reroute a farm road, and milling them into timber to build a new set of cattle yards.

The scenery as we drove out the long road to Mount Virginia was breathtaking!

Our friend gave Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie rides in the skidder. He was moving logs around and putting them on the portable sawmill, which I apparently failed to get a picture of.

When we headed out to see the sheep moved, our friend led us with his truck. We followed as far as we could in the van, but when we got to where the terrain was too rough, the boys took off on foot. The rest of us crowded into the truck—four women and three little people in the cab with the farmer and four people in the back with the dogs! He took us farther up the hill.

He caught this lamb so our visitors could pet it, and Mr. Imagination enjoyed holding it, too.

When the sheep saw us coming, they took off for the way into the next paddock.

We all followed the farmer along the fenceline to where he needed to open the fence to let the sheep through. The sheep went back and forth several times, but eventually he got them all through. Apparently, one of the dogs wasn’t behaving the best. The boys climbed to the top of the hill and looked for stragglers. They were tired that night!

After moving the sheep, we watched our friend cut down a few more trees. His children had gotten home from school and wanted to see some trees come down.

Sunday School Picnic

March 19, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

The Saturday after we moved, the first Saturday since the beginning of December that we were free to do what we wanted to instead of working on the house, we were invited to a Sunday School picnic with a church in Waikari that we attended one time before. One of their families lives way up in the hills over Hawarden, almost to the mountains, and the picnic was there. After enjoying the meal and fellowship all afternoon, we drove to the end of the road before coming home. The views were spectacular!