Travel

On the Way Home

November 23, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here is the last post about our trip to America. This feels like it’s been a long project! Now I need to check out all the cameras and phones to see what pictures I have from here at home to post so you can see what has been happening since then!

We left Ohio the last Tuesday in August, more than ready to get home. It was a beautiful, sunny late summer day, and Grandpa wanted to take us across the Ohio River on Anderson Ferry, instead of going the normal way over the bridge. So we had the fun of a 5-minute ferry ride!

Our flight from Cincinnati to Houston went without a hitch. I let Little Miss, who was sitting beside me, use my phone to take pictures of the rivers she saw underneath us.

We landed in Houston and found our gate, got our boarding passes (because the children fly home with New Zealand passports, their boarding passes couldn’t be printed in Cincinnati), and got on the plane right on time. The pilot announced that we were ready for takeoff and should get in early. Then, a minute or two later, he came on again to say that the crew who were going to push us out of the gate noticed that two navigation lights were off on the plane. It took three hours to get them fixed and create a new flight plan–three hours of sitting in the plane on the tarmac. When we finally took off, Miss Joy was sound asleep and Little Miss was so tired and dehydrated that when our meal was served she got sick. That was a long, miserable flight. We were very happy to see New Zealand in the morning as we neared Auckland!

I had again allowed the children to use my phone, and Little Miss took the picture above, as well as this one of a very bored, sleep-deprived Mr. Imagination, and the next one as we were coming in for landing.

Because we were three hours late leaving Houston, we missed our flight to Christchurch. We were rebooked on another flight a few hours later, which went smoothly until we were about 15 minutes away from landing. Then, we ran into a nor-wester, an extremely strong wind that sweeps over the mountains and across Canterbury. We’ve experienced many of them on the ground, but it was a whole new experience to be in one in the air. The men and boys on the flight whooped and cheered as if they were on a roller coaster–I gripped the arms of my seat and hung on for dear life! What a relief to land safely. If you look at this picture, you can see the change in the clouds over the main divide. We live somewhere under those smooth clouds in the distance.

After we landed, our friends picked us up, took us to their house to get our vehicle, and fed us lunch before we headed for home. Notice the snow on the mountains? It’s a bit of a shock to leave summer in Ohio and arrive in winter in New Zealand! It rained for about half of our trip home, so we were a bit concerned about the 100+ books in our luggage, since we had it all in the back of a ute with a leaky canopy. Not much got wet, though, and the little that did was clothing that we could wash and it was fine. We were very happy to be at home!

Pennsylvania and Last Days in Ohio

November 16, 2025 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

When we left Michigan near the end of August, we went to Pennsylvania for a few days for Kingdom Fellowship Weekend, a gathering of 1-2,000 Anabaptists for teaching and fellowship. To say the least, it was a bit overwhelming! When a large gathering here is a hundred people, to be in the midst of that many people we didn’t know was challenging. We had some relatives there, though, and it was great to catch up with them, and we met up with several people we knew way back, before moving to New Zealand. That was good!

We spent about 12 hours on the road the day we traveled from Michigan to Pennsylvania. That was a long day! Most of it was quite boring, driving on the turnpike. We did spot a few interesting things, such as a few bald eagles. And, somewhere in southern Michigan, we saw this enormous beam being transported. The children were pretty impressed.

This woodpecker was outside our room at the camp. Because we had just been with my mom, who is quite a naturalist, we were all especially attuned to things like this.

Before breakfast on our first day there, I took the children exploring around the campground. They loved this bridge and tiny amphitheater! They spent some time running around the benches.

Another favorite place at the camp was the playground, where the girls made a lot of sand turtles one day and then wanted me to take a picture of them.

We had another long day of driving the day the camp ended, when we went back to western Ohio to Gayle’s dad’s house to prepare to fly home. This was the sunset that evening, somewhere between Columbus and Preble County.

These next three pictures were actually probably taken before we went to Michigan, the day that we sorted and did our preliminary packing. My sister-in-law was sorting through closets, and found a lot of dresses she and her sisters used to wear. She had fun dressing our girls up like herself! The quilt was hand-made by a great- or great-great grandmother, some hundred years ago or more.

When we got back to Grandpa’s house, the children were excited to find more kittens. This one was especially exciting because it looked “just like” the cat in a book we read at Grandma’s house in Michigan, The Almost All-White Rabbity Cat by Meindert de Jong (an author whose books are out of print but I want all of them!).

The children also had great fun hunting insects with a net. They got this grasshopper and butterfly, and wanted them recorded.

The very best find, however, was the snakeskin Mr. Imagination found at his aunt’s house. He was delighted!

More Michigan Pictures

November 9, 2025 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We enjoyed two weeks in Michigan, staying at my mom’s little house, just down the hill from the house in which I grew up. We helped her with a few little jobs. Gayle and Mr. Imagination cut down a few dead trees and cut them up for firewood for my sister who lives in the big house.

Miss Joy loved cuddling Johnny Cat, who hangs out at Grandma’s house most of the time, while she watched the tree-cutting operation.

I enjoyed seeing deer come close to the house a few mornings while I had my Bible time.

It’s hard to reconcile the way the land is now with the way I remember it. When I lived there, all this land was grazed by our herd of milk cows, but now it’s all overgrown! I had a hard time recognizing familiar spots.

We visited my dad’s grave on the way home from church one of the Sundays.

We enjoyed picking blueberries. We went just with Grandma once, then again several days later with many from the extended family. My sister and I went back another time, just the two of us, to get a few more. What fun!

We made a delicious fruit salad with the blueberries, strawberries and raspberries from Grandma’s garden, and some peaches that we bought. Yum!

One day, Grandma and I went shopping with the two girls. On the way home, we stopped at an overlook at the edge of the Pere Marquette River beside Ludington. What a view of the wetlands!

The children enjoyed Grandma’s marble roller.

On the day we went to the Otto Nature Preserve, we stopped in Silver Lake to get ice cream from the place where my niece works. The shop wasn’t open when we got there, but she was working and opened the window to sell us each a cone. I recommend The Other Place if you are in Silver Lake!

The children enjoyed putting together Grandma’s puzzles; Miss Joy wanted a picture of this floor puzzle after it was completed.

They enjoyed playing her games, too!

Mr. Imagination loved mowing Grandma’s lawn–and was especially delighted to find a couple of small snakes!

I had fun trying to get pictures of a few butterflies.

One morning, we noticed a huge flock of vultures wheeling overhead. Off to the east a short distance we could see another similar-sized flock, and there were many more perched on the power tower on the hill just to the north. I counted the ones in this flock and estimated that we could see around 60 vultures all at once!

Mr. Imagination had fun exploring the creek (changing clothes and showering afterward because of ticks and poison ivy!), and brought this frog up to show us one time.

Little Miss found this walking stick in Grandma’s garage.

Because Grandma loves nature, the children brought her anything interesting that they found. She put this caterpillar in a cage to see what it would turn into. Within a few days it was pupating.

Miss Joy asked me to french-braid her hair one day, then wanted a picture of it so she could see it.

Traveling in January (and the canoe)

February 1, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

We had several visitors from other places in January. Practically every time someone comes to visit, we take them to Pancake Rocks. I ended up staying home from the last two trips there; I have a baby who does not like to go away from home, so I stay here and prepare meals.

The first visitors for the month were two young men and their sister. Gayle and the children took them to Pancake Rocks on New Year’s Day. They stopped at the Brunner Mine first; this is the Grey River from there.

After checking out Pancake Rocks, they went to Punakaiki Caverns. It’s apparently very beautiful! I’ve never been there myself.

They also took the Truman Track down to the beach. I have been there! Here are Mr. Diligence and Mr. Intellectual climbing a rock.

Our other visitors arrived towards the end of the month. This was two young ladies Esther’s age from Germany. Esther took several trips with them. The first trip was to Pancake Rocks; I didn’t save any of her pictures. Later that week, she, Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie went along to the glaciers with them. Here they are walking up to Franz Josef.

They also went to Fox Glacier, but couldn’t drive up as we did the last time. In fact, the road on both sides of the river that goes away from Fox Glacier has been washed out from the record-breaking rainfalls we’ve had this year. They walked up the road on the side away from the glacier; it’s closed to vehicles because of the slips. They walked a total of two hours there!

In between trips, the boys took the German girls down to the creek and gave them a ride in the boat.

Mr. Sweetie, Mr. Imagination, and Little Miss enjoyed the water and mud!

Esther and Mr. Sweetie also went with the girls to Arthur’s Pass. They stopped at Lake Brunner on the way.

This is a waterfall on the Millenium Walk, near the visitor’s centre.

These pictures were taken at the Devil’s Punchbowl Falls.

We have enjoyed having visitors!

Now that we’re home for a Saturday with no visitors, however, this happened:

The canoe has been sitting for the past year, waiting for the fibreglass. Mr. Intellectual got the sanding done awhile ago, and he patched up the holes. Now, the fibreglass is on, with the first coat of epoxy. Doesn’t it look good?

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!

Trip to Kaikoura

May 26, 2019 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

This weekend we made a quick trip to Kaikoura. We hadn’t been back there for church since we moved here, almost a year and a half ago. Most of us went to visit our friends there a year ago, and we’ve seen some of the people since then, but there is one dear lady we hadn’t seen at all. It was so good to be there and touch base again with the people we spent eight years with!

On our way, we stopped for a little while in Waiau, and the children enjoyed playing at the playground in the warm sunshine. Mr. Imagination got hit in the face with a piece of playground equipment (a brother got a little careless in bouncing it) and apparently had a slight concussion; the next half hour of his trip was miserable. After he had a short nap, he was fine.

Left to right: Mr. Intellectual, Mr. Diligence, Mr. Imagination, Mr. Sweetie, Simon

Our next stop was the cemetery in Cheviot where Seth is buried. We had bought a headstone for him six months ago, and hadn’t seen it yet. That was rather an emotional part of the day.

We next moved on to St. Anne’s Lagoon, just south of Cheviot, where we had a picnic lunch. The lagoon was gorgeous on this clear fall day–look at those reflections! It was so nice to see the lagoon full of water again. A couple of years ago, during the three-year drought that Cheviot endured, the lagoon dried up.

After lunch, we headed on to Kaikoura, where we had a joyous reunion with old friends. There were still a few hours of daylight, so we went out to the Peninsula. Most of both families walked partway around at sea level, then climbed a stairway to the top and came back to the car park. The mother and I, and some of the children, walked out on the rocks a little way, then went back to their house and started preparing food. It is so amazing to see what low tide looks like now–so different from before the November 2016 earthquake, when the sea floor rose two meters.

Photos En Route…and More From Michigan

March 2, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

When I looked at my childrens’ memory cards, I found some interesting pictures taken on the way to and and the way home from America. I also found a few more taken in Michigan that I wanted to share! So, here you are.

This was on our first flight, from Christchurch to Auckland, when everyone was fresh and excited!

I could see Farewell Spit from my window as we flew north. I’ve seen pictures of it at low tide, but it was apparently high tide this time—quite different!

This was one of the interesting planes we saw on the tarmac in Auckland. I don’t know what airline it is, but the artwork on it was spectacular!

Our first glimpse of snow on this trip came as we approached Chicago.

My boys were fascinated with all the big planes parked at the International Terminal in Chicago.

They also liked the diversion, during our four-hour layover in Chicago, which turned into five hours when the flight crew got held up in traffic, of watching luggage being loaded into the belly of our plane.

As we traveled home in our van across the mountains from Christchurch to the West Coast, we had to stop on the way down from Arthur’s Pass, because there are a couple of one-lane spots still from a major storm in November. We were amused by the tourists in front of us—two people jumped out of their cars to take a picture of this waterfall—so one of the boys took a picture of them taking a picture!

On the Sunday we were in Michigan, we drove to Ludington after church to see the ice at the breakwater. I’ve never seen the lake so high against that breakwall! We decided not to attempt walking out on it.

There was a lunar eclipse that night. Some of us were still awake to watch it reach totality. We tried to wake some of the others up, and they groaned and rolled over. One of those, who shall remain nameless, came into my room a few hours later, still in the wee hours, and asked me when the eclipse was happening—he was quite unhappy to have missed it, and said we should have shaken him. We had.

And, to wrap this up, here are a few more shots of snow-deprived little people enjoying a rare treat!

Trip to America—Ohio

February 23, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Our first two days in Ohio were great; we spent the time with Gayle’s entire family. Then, we got hit with a stomach bug. My children hadn’t had something like that for six years (since we were in America another time!), and had very little immunity to it; the youngest had never had anything like it. Suffice it to say, the rest of our time in Ohio was not very fun, and we ended up canceling almost all plans.

The first day we were there, my boys helped their cousin haul some hay.

We got several pictures from the family gathering, but most had other people in them. Here are a few I can share! This little girl wrapped tissue paper around herself for a “skirt.”

This was the first boy to get sick. He spent a miserable afternoon while the whole family was still there.

While we were in Michigan, my sister received a gift that was shipped in a large box full of cornstarch packing peanuts. I took the box with us to Ohio, and the boys spent a day or two making wonderful creations by sticking them together with a bit of water. Here are some of the things they came up with:

Mr. Sweetie built this boat.

Mr. Imagination made these boats. Mr. Diligence made something quite creative, too. I can’t remember now what it was, and when we took the pictures he was sick so I didn’t get a photo of his.

My sister-in-law with whom we stayed made a batch of play dough for the children. The little boys spent hours and hours over a few days playing with it, with her toy kitchen set, and when Little Miss recovered from her sickness she spent every spare minute playing with it, too! I’m thinking I need to find her a kitchen set.

My boys loved ice skating; they went twice. Each time, two were well enough to go and one had to stay back, but they all got to go at least once. These two enjoyed cleaning off their aunt’s porch and walk one day after a fresh snowfall!

So there you have what I can share here of our time with family! I’m hoping to get back into a routine of posting every Saturday again, now that we’re recovered from jet lag and I’m not so tired from pregnancy anymore. Yes, we’re hoping for a new addition to the family in about six months! We’re very thankful for the prospect of a new baby, and when we got to hear the heartbeat this morning it was very thrilling to know that this little one is alive.

Motel Etiquette

December 25, 2014 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

Our daughter works at a motel around the corner from us, cleaning for a few hours a day, two to four days a week. One evening this week, she commented that one room, occupied by one man, was a lot messier than another room, which had been occupied by a couple and their 10-month-old baby. That prompted a question from me as to how you should leave a motel room in order to make it easiest for the cleaners. I’ve stayed so few times in a motel in my life that I really have no clue! She had several tips, and I found the conversation so interesting I decided to write them down.

One pretty obvious thing you should do is to strip the beds of all bedding you’ve used. If you make the bed, it is hard for them to know what has been used and what hasn’t; if you take off the sheets and pillowcases you used, they know exactly what needs to be washed and it saves a lot of time.

If you stay in a room with a kitchen, which all motel rooms in New Zealand seem to have, wash the dishes you used—but leave them on the counter. Otherwise, the cleaner has to sort through the cupboard and determine what needs washed and what is all right. If you leave them on the counter, it’s obvious.

Of course, put your trash in the trash can—and it helps the cleaner if you knot the bag so all they have to do is pull it out. Check through the room for any personal belongings you might be missing, and don’t forget the fridge! One day recently, they found a refrigerator full of food that someone forgot to take along.

And one final tip—make a pile of all the towels and washcloths you used. If there are some you didn’t use, put them in a neat pile on the bed you didn’t use, or somewhere else clean—not on the floor! I don’t know about other motels, but of the three in Cheviot, the other two allow only 30 minutes to completely clean a room. Anything that you can do to help the cleaners is good! I guess this would fall under the category of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Oamaru

May 4, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We went to Timaru over Easter weekend for a conference, and that Friday evening, Esther had an idea. We had most of the next day free, since the only meeting was at 3:30 in the afternoon. She had met a girl last June at a conference in Christchurch, and has since had some contact with her online. She was thinking this girl and her family lived near Timaru, and thought it would be nice to visit her on Saturday. I thought they lived in Oamaru (pronounced Ah-muh-roo), about an hour’s drive farther south. We knew their last name, but not her father’s first name. I knew what letter her mother’s name started with, but not her full name. Esther looked in the phone book and found about half a dozen listings with that last name. One of them had a wife with the first initial I remembered, and the street name sounded familiar to Esther from a video the girl and her brothers had made, but that was all we had to go by. I told Esther she could try calling them on my cell phone and see if that was the right people, and it was! We went to visit them Saturday, and were able to spend a couple of hours visiting with that wonderful family. They live in an old house in the Victorian section of Oamaru (the most Victorian city in New Zealand), and took us on a tour of the old downtown section. One of their boys is a volunteer helping to restore old steam engines and because of that we got to tour the place they do that. What a special day!

Look at that hill! I was impressed with the way it went up, and then up again, and up again! Oamaru is very hilly.

There are a lot of old grain warehouses in Oamaru, left over from the time immediately after the city’s founding about 130 years ago, when fortunes were made from wheat. The boom ended after only 20 years or so, when there was a world-wide depression, and the city has never recovered. That means, however, that the old buildings have been preserved, because no one has had money to tear them down and build new ones!One of the steam engines that is being restored. A glimpse of the scenery between Timaru and Oamaru:

Probably a plant for making milk powder.One of many flooded rivers—not sure which one this is.Water across the highway just north of Oamaru.