Our family's life in New Zealand
A friend of ours bought a horse recently for his children, and a couple of times in March the horse was brought to the Nelson Creek park by someone else, with the owner’s permission. He’s a good-natured horse, and let the children ride him for quite awhile each time.
What this picture doesn’t show is the time Elijah fell off! He’s never had the opportunity to learn to ride a horse.
I’ve finally finished posting the pictures from our North Island trip! Now to catch up on the photos from around home. Here are the rest from January.
After a couple of four wheel drive trips, the boys’ trucks were in need of a wash. Miss Joy happily helped operate the power washer!
James spent more time working on his sleepout. This was the day he started cladding the outside.
The boys cleaned the carport and garage. They decided it was time to get rid of this old stationary engine that had been sitting there for about three years. Simon wanted to restore it and get it working again, but finally gave up. Elijah listed it on Trade Me for a $1 reserve auction, and it went up over $250! The next challenge was to load it on the buyer’s truck. This was the test run with the tractor-mounted crane that Simon and James built to hoist cattle they are butchering. It worked, so when the buyer came to get the engine, that’s how they lifted it! The engine had wheels under it, so it was easy to get it out of the carport, but too heavy to lift by hand.
We went to Nelson Creek for a baptism one Sunday afternoon, and of course the children wanted to swim.
See what James has on his feet to go swimming? They were actually very light-weight boots, full of holes so they didn’t fill up with water.
I think this was taken down at the river.
Little Miss wanted to make braided bread, so Esther helped her.
Part of the second hatch of chicks. It’s so fun to see them hatching!
On the first Thursday of December, one of the moms in our homeschool group organized a cross country meet. Quite a few families from the region came, some driving 45 minutes from one direction and others coming an hour from the opposite direction. The children were divided into age groups; the youngest ran one kilometer, the middles (including Little Miss) ran two, and the older ones (including my two school-age boys) ran three kilometers. Part of their route ran through the bush, and I was stationed, with Miss Joy, at a fork in the trail just at the bottom of these steps, at the end of the swing bridge. Miss Joy was quite bored for awhile as we waited for the runners to reach us.
Then they came! Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Imagination stuck together through the race.
I had given my camera to a friend who stayed at the finish line, and she got pictures of my children completing the race.
After the races there were athletic events. The only one I got a picture of was the shot-put, but they also got to throw a discus, do a long jump, and do sprints. This is Little Miss doing the shot-put. All the children had great fun that day!
One day last week, a friend of ours organized a cross-country race for the local homeschool children. It was very low-key; no prizes for the winners. It was just a time to have fun together! We held it at the Nelson Creek campground. The littlest children ran a 250-meter course, the older ones could choose to go 2 or 3 km, and the middle-age ones ran 1 km.
This is Mr. Sweetie about 2/3 of the way through his 3 km run. Mr. Imagination was right behind him.
Both my school boys nearing the finish line!
After the races and our picnic lunch, we took Grandma on a walk around the loop through the bush. A friend’s three children wanted to stay and spend more time, so we took them home with us later; their 4-year-old is leading Esther and Miss Joy in this picture.
One thing the boys are loving about living here is that there is a good swimming spot just 15 minutes from home, within 10 minutes from Simon’s work. Several times, we have gone to Nelson Creek to go swimming after picking Simon up from work. The family he works for, with whom he lived for six months before we moved here, has gone each time, too, so there are lots of children having lots of fun in the water each time!
The first time we went, there were a lot of people already using the favorite swimming hole, so we went to a bend downstream. Here, Simon is trying to get up into a cave. As you can see in the second picture, he got there, and then Mr. Intellectual and Mr. Diligence got there, too, although it was difficult.
Looking downstream from where I was sitting.
The boys found a long log, and pulled it upstream so they could float down on it.
The other times we went we were able to be at the other spot. It’s still in the sun in the evening, so it’s warmer. There are also steps dug into the cliff face, so they climb up and then jump into the deep water at the base. The splash when they hit the water is tremendous!
Between the two families there are four inner tubes—or were, until Mr. Diligence overinflated one of ours and then it hit a nail! The boys love tubing from the walking bridge just upstream, down past where we sit watching to the bend just below us.
After we visited the gold dredge, we drove to Nelson Creek to explore a bit in an old goldfield. Simon was very happy to drive some of us in his car. He was careful, and never scared his mom! 
To get to the swing bridge, we first went through this tunnel.
If you don’t like walking on bridges that bounce, this one is not for you! Even with noone trying to bounce it, it still did a lot. I crossed it, but I really didn’t like it.
Looking upstream from the bridge—yes, it was drizzly.
I thought it was appropriate that the water was somewhat gold-colored!
After we crossed that little side creek, we started up this trail. I couldn’t possibly capture the scenery here; there were steep banks going up both sides of the trail. We were walking at the bottom of a deep ravine. It was amazing to walk through this area!
When we reached this cave, of course everyone had to explore it. It was a mining tunnel dug by the Chinese gold miners in the late 1800s. A creek runs through the bottom of it, into Nelson Creek. We enjoyed seeing glowworms in the ceiling—but our feet got cold! The water was frigid.
This is Simon, in a part of the tunnel some 20 feet above where Esther and Little Miss were standing in the picture above! He was pointing out the marks left by the mining picks in the ceiling around him. It was very dark, and my flash wouldn’t reach to where he was, so that’s why it’s blurry.
Going back through the ravine. The boys explored another tunnel they found, but some of us stayed on the path.
It lightened up a little as we crossed the bridge again going back to the car!
