Our family's life in New Zealand
A few weeks ago, I remembered a funny video Esther took in September 2010, so we found and watched it. It made me laugh again, just as in the past! The baby is Mr. Sweetie. Seth is in the yellow shirt on the bike. Simon has a yellow and brown striped shirt, Elijah has a blue striped shirt, and Mr. Diligence is the cute little fellow in the maroon shirt. They sure have grown up since then!
This was yesterday, with Little Miss and Miss Joy starring. Puddles were made for children!
We made a quick trip to Canterbury yesterday for a friend’s 21st birthday celebration. She invited us in January and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since! It was originally scheduled for September, but lockdown happened. We were delighted to be able to attend now! We didn’t have a deadline for arriving, so decided to have a more relaxed trip than usual. We left late in the morning, and packed a picnic lunch. We stopped at Windy Point, a DOC site, the jumping-off point for a series of tracks through the high country. Three years ago, Gayle and the boys had gone backpacking through there. After we ate lunch, on this beautifully sunny, warm day, we walked out to the first swing bridge, which is really almost the trailhead. The views were spectacular!
The boys love the challenge of walking across the bridge without touching the wires with their hands. I’m not sure how many, if any, of them accomplished it. That bridge really swings and bounces! I didn’t even try to walk that way. In fact, I didn’t look down or around at the scenery. I looked straight ahead.
Elijah took this video with his phone as he went back across. It doesn’t even begin to show the grandeur of the setting, but you can get a tiny glimpse.
Esther tried to do a photo shoot with Miss Joy on the way back. Mr. Diligent photo bombed her! He decided the two of them needed to wear his shoes on their heads! He carried those shoes all the way from the van, and then back again, rather than wearing them. Goofy boy!
Eventually, she decided to cover her smile!
Miss Joy did not appreciate the way Simon carried her!
She decided to walk by herself, instead.
Some time in July, Miss Joy and her big sister collided on a trampoline, and Miss Joy ended up with a broken leg. It was just a greenstick fracture, so not very serious, but she had her leg in a cast for a little over three weeks. She was walking on it only about nine days after the accident, and getting around pretty much normally, but the first few days were a bit challenging. It’s a good thing she has a naturally sunny disposition! The other hard part was near the end; I think the cast must have been irritating her, because little things that normally wouldn’t bother her at all made her scream. Maybe her leg was itchy, and she couldn’t figure out how to tell us? Anyway, here are some of the things she did during the time she had her cast on.
This first picture was a few days before she broke her leg. I had a bowl of beans on the counter, soaking, and when she needed something to, I gave her a sieve and a bowl and let her scoop beans and water. You’ll see down a little ways why I included this!
The morning after the accident, Miss Joy couldn’t move below the waist at all. The only thing she could do was sit; she couldn’t even figure out how to roll over. She was sitting on the couch with her books, and asked me for a “Bible.” I figured out she wanted a songbook, so I gave it to her and she sang for us. You can hear her in this video clip.
The next day, she figured out how to crawl, and she was off! That evening, Esther gave her a permanent marker and showed her how to draw on her cast. You can see in this video how focused she was.
Right around that time, she caught sight of another bowl of beans I was soaking when I carried her through the kitchen. “Beans!” she exclaimed. She couldn’t stand up, so I put her on the floor with the beans, making sure there wasn’t too much water in them. I didn’t want the plaster cast to get wet! She happily played with the beans for a long time.
One evening, she wanted more beans, but I didn’t have any soaking. Instead, I put rice on a tray and gave it to her. She spent an hour or so playing with that! We had to sweep it up a couple of times, but it was sure worth it.
She spent a lot of time looking at her books.
It didn’t end up being too hard an experience, after all. I sure wouldn’t want this to happen again, but we made it through, and she is as good as new again.
Three weeks ago, while Gayle and I and the five youngest children were in Canterbury for the weekend, there was a lot of rain over here. That Saturday, our three oldest drove down to the river in Simon’s 4WD Pajero to check out the flooding, and Esther took pictures and a video. Little did we know that this weekend would be even worse! I would guess that the flood waters were about twice as high. We never got any pictures this time, though; we stayed inside while it was pouring for several days! Simon had planned to work on the piles under his house on Friday, but as fast as he scooped the water out of the holes it flowed back in! A lot of roads were closed with slips, and the road from here to Greymouth was closed for a day and a half because of flooding. The rain stopped last night, and already today when we went to church the Ahaura River had gone down quite a lot. It’s still as high as I’ve ever seen it!
This is Orwell Creek. This weekend, the water was over a foot deep on the road here!
That’s the Ahaura River ahead, in the gap between the trees. This is normally a parking area.
The nearer bridge is the old one, which by now is completely gone. The other is the new one.
This morning, the water was still up over that spot where the pipes are! This afternoon it had gone down to where the gravel is.
Here is a video Esther made of the flooding. The first two clips are from driving along Orwell Creek, both going toward the river and coming back, and then some from crossing the bridge. The road along Orwell Creek is where we walk when we go to the riverbed for picnics.
Here are the rest of our photos from April—and a video clip of Miss Joy drawing! This little girl loves to draw. She frequently requests—or demands—paper and pencil; she wants to “ite!” Since these photos were taken, she has progressed from scribbling all over a piece of paper to drawing little circles. She also cuts things; scissors are her other frequent request. Yesterday, she cut one piece of scrap paper into little bits, then pointed to the stack and wanted another. It was soon in bits all over the floor, too!
Simon helped a neighbor kill and skin a few sheep, and a few days later, he came home with one of them! He and Elijah soon had it cut into pieces. I’m so happy that they can—and enjoy—cutting up meat.
Late one afternoon…I was making applesauce while Mr. Sweetie tried to finish his school work for the day.
A few weeks after Esther and her brothers built the shelves, she and I spent a day organizing the container. This is what it looked like when we started. We never got a picture when we were done, but it’s usable, now! It’s still crowded,but we can find things and get to them.
Simon starting on the tiny house.
They lined it with these sheets of insulation, and then put plywood over that.
Gayle, Esther, and all our boys went with a number of other people from our church on a drive along a rough track up the Snowy River. The road along this river comes out on the main road about 20 minutes’ drive north of us. They went up that road to the end, where they had morning tea at a farm, and then took the track a couple of kilometers into the bush to a former gold-mining area—the Alexander’s mine and gold stamping mill. Here is some of the scenery on the way to the farm.
Mr. Sweetie gesticulating about something at the farm. (Notice his new glasses, Grandma?) 
The center vehicle is Simon’s Pajero. The one in front is his boss’s Land Cruiser, affectionately known as the Troopie (because it’s a troop carrier). My family has been talking about the electric system for this farm ever since they got home. They generate their own power with a water turbine. The power is taken to the buildings with a single Number 8 wire, and most of the year they have to leave the lights on all the time so they don’t burn out the system, because they have too much power!
The first river crossing!
The Troopie has made it across; will the Pajero and the other Land Cruiser make it?
Simon hooking up a snatch strap so the Troopie can help him get up the muddy bank. He says the water was icy.
Checking out the ruts the Pajero made. The bank was apparently about three feet high before the Troopie went up it, and then the Pajero smashed it down some, too.
Eating lunch.
A tree was across the track—it’s a good thing someone had a chain saw along!
The old stamping mill at the end of the track. They used to use some sort of cyanide treatment to extract the gold. Here is a video I took several years ago of a stamping mill that can still be used; it will give you a bit of an idea how they worked.
Back out at the road!
The vehicles emerged not much the worse for wear. The Troopie had no damage. The other Cruiser had some, and Simon lost a bit of trim from the sill under his door. They were pretty muddy when they got home, but that was the worst. Simon is hoping to do this kind of thing a bit more often, now that he has a vehicle for it.
Here is a video we put together from clips that Esther took of the river crossings:
In looking over our photos from March, I’m seeing a lot of them of one person! Miss Joy is quite popular, and very cute. She’s into everything, and jabbers about everything. We can even understand part of what she says!
Her favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? This copy was given to Elijah by his grandmother, probably 15 years ago. It has been taped together and glued together, and is still being enjoyed! I just ordered a replacement, though, a board book this time, because this one got left in a windowsill overnight and the condensation soaked it. It’s still readable, but the pages are all falling out and the covers are swollen. We can’t be without this book, though!
Mr. Imagination built a couple of hammocks, and his little sisters enjoyed them.
Helping the big boys mow lawn! She must have been trying to figure out how to start it.
There are two little babies at church, and Miss Joy loves them. So does her big brother Simon!
Miss Joy is an artist. She loves to draw! She often asks for pen and “papee!” She wants to “ite!” She focuses hard on what she is doing, and keeps at it until her piece of paper is covered with her scribbles.
She also loves to climb in bed with Little Miss! It’s so much fun to read at bedtime.
I’m not sure what she was doing here in Esther’s room.
Sitting in the windowsill behind the couch. This is where Brown Bear met its demise.
One afternoon she came marching into the living room brandishing a croquet mallet in one hand, a block of wood in the other, and dangling a toothbrush from her mouth!
Another day, she figured out how to climb into the washing machine. 
Can you tell we enjoy having this little girl around? She sure adds sparkle to our days!
And, here is a video I just remembered making.
After we walked everywhere we could around Milford Sound, we gathered at the back of the vans to eat our sandwiches. It was raining, so some of us stood under the open back door; others got inside and sat in the seats. Wherever we were, the sandflies were BAD! They came in clouds, attacking every inch of exposed skin. We didn’t waste any time eating, and got on the road again quickly to escape the hungry hordes.
This is what we saw as we got on the road again. The mountains were absolutely spectacular, even through the rain.
Here we were heading up to the Homer Tunnel again, from the seaward side. Again, there were sheer rock cliffs going straight up. It’s nearly impossible to get a feel for it from a photo. I was absolutely awestruck by these mountains.
There’s the tunnel! I was quite disappointed that the light had just turned green. I was hoping we would have several minutes to sit there waiting, and soak in the grandeur of the scene. 
Have you noticed the water streaming down the rocks all around?
Going down the landward side.
We stopped at a pulloff beside a waterfall. Miss Joy was asleep, so I stayed in the van with her while the others went to the viewing platform. This kea was on top of a motorhome; it rode for a little ways, and then flew back to our vans. 
Miss Joy didn’t sleep long, so I got out of the van and went to see the waterfall, too.
When we moved on, the red van went ahead. Maybe I needed to feed Miss Joy? I can’t remember for sure. That left Esther and the two little girls and I together when we stopped at another overlook where we could see this spectacular valley. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was an amazing sight.
Our next stop was the Cascade Creek Nature Walk at Lake Gunn. Miss Joy needed some time to play, so I stayed in the gray van with the two little girls while everyone else went on the walk. These are Esther’s pictures.
We also stopped at Mirror Lakes. A nice boardwalk led along the edge of a beautiful pond.
We were trying to get a picture of all the children, and another tourist offered to take our family picture, so we quickly organized for this.
Then, we went back to work on the children’s picture.
Miss Joy didn’t want to be separated from Mommy.
Finally, Daddy had to help keep her in place while I took the picture.
When we got back to Te Anau, we still had a few hours of daylight, so we stopped at the bird sanctuary. This is a takahe, a very rare bird. They have a couple of pairs there.
These are blue ducks, also very rare.
Paradise ducks aren’t exactly rare, but we enjoyed watching them. The mother (the one closest to the camera) was very worried that we would hurt her babies, and kept trying to get us through the fence.
This is a relative of the kea, some sort of a parrot, but I don’t remember what it’s called.
This is another parrot.
A table and chairs just her size!
A little house for her, too!
This is the view from our friends’ house. I would love to see it on a sunny day!
Here is a video put together from several clips that various family members. The first clip was taken in the Eglinton Valley, on the way to Milford, by Mr. Imagination. Next is Esther’s clip of going through the Homer Tunnel, and then of going down the mountain from the tunnel. After that is a clip from sea level at Milford Sound, followed by one of the waterfall where we saw the kea. Then, there is one of Lake Gunn and a few from the nature walk.
We spent two nights with our friends in Dunedin. While we were there, I didn’t take any pictures. It was pouring the entire time, and we mainly stayed inside. Our friends had built a guesthouse, which we slept in. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but every time I went to it, I was trying to carry a baby and an umbrella, and dodging around the river that was running down the path we took up to it! It was very comfortable, and we enjoyed our time with them. We left late Sunday afternoon, and headed on south to visit some friends in the Catlins. Just before we left, Esther wanted to get a picture with her two little sisters, in the new dresses she made for them all just before our trip.
Our friends live on a mountain, and the road going down is slightly daunting! I have no idea what the gradient is, but it’s steep!
This is the Dunedin Train Station, which I posted pictures of the other time we were down there. You can find the pictures here and here, if you’re interested.
More interesting buildings in Dunedin.
Houses on the hillside. Dunedin is a very hilly city!
Maybe half an hour after we got on the road, the skies opened in a cloudburst. It was raining so hard that we had to slow down quite a lot. We could hardly see ahead of us. We kept moving, but slowly, and soon the rain let up—but then we started seeing flooding. 
We crossed a bridge over the Taieri River, and saw the water pouring over the stopbank on the far side. Esther was taking a video at the time, and caught that.
I don’t think anyone drove into that paddock that day!
It was rather a relief to get away from the flooding as we continued farther south. I was a bit concerned that the road might end up closing, and didn’t want to be caught somewhere we didn’t want to be.
The Clutha River was high, too, but not as bad as up north.
The Catlins are beautiful! Rolling, green hills with cattle and sheep on them.
When we were planning our trip, Esther and I decided that we wanted to go to The Book Barn, a huge used book store. We knew that the men and boys in our family, for the most part, would not be interested, and would be bored waiting for us, so she looked online for other attractions in the area. She discovered that Ashburton has an Aviation Museum, and the website made it look and sound very interesting—and it didn’t cost too much, either. So, on the third day of our trip, we split up. Esther and I and Miss Joy went in one van to the book shop, and everyone else went in the other van to Ashburton. We met them there for lunch, after they had been at the museum for a couple of hours, and then we took a quick tour through, as well.
Before we got on the road, we had a look at a project our host family’s grandfather is working on. This is the empty tomb, built into a hillside, and on a hilltop nearby, he plans to erect three crosses. Inside the tomb, facing the empty place representing where Jesus’ body would have lain, will be a bench to sit on, and Christian literature.
Miss Joy fell asleep immediately after we left.
The father of the man of the family with we had spent the night owns this church, the Church of the Open Door. It is not used for services anymore, but he maintains it as a place for people to come in and pray or meditate any time they want to. He comes every Sunday to clean it.
A close-up of the prickly pear around the front.
Inside the church.
It’s always fun to see this giant fish when we got through Rakaia.
The museum! It is at the Ashburton airport. The museum occupies three hangers. This photo was taken from the top of the restored control tower.
Little Miss wanted to show me the hospital plane. It was what she was most fascinated with.
Inside was a stretcher and a place for an attendant to sit.
Little Miss under the DC-3.
Going inside the DC-3. This plane is fully operational, but it would cost a million dollars a day to pay for insurance to fly it.
The DC-3 was probably the one Elijah was most fascinated with.
Someone was amused at this sign. They didn’t think they wanted to have to be rescued!
This helicopter was used during the Korean War to transport wounded soldiers away from the front. A stretcher was strapped on to each side, on the outside, with a hood to protect the wounded man from the blast of air while flying. The helicopter’s tail is in another part of the room; it was too big to leave on.
A jet engine.
A sprayer plane, used to spread fertilizer on hilly farms.
This may have been the first plane ever flown. It was built at the same time as the Wright Brothers’ plane, and possibly flown first, but didn’t get the publicity theirs did.
The restored 1940s control tower. There was an airforce base near here during World War II.
Mr. Imagination’s favorite thing at the museum was this manual typewriter! He was fascinated by it.
We really enjoyed our visit to this museum. It was definitely worth spending time at! Two days a week, one of which happened to be the day we were there, volunteers come in to work on restoring the planes, and you can talk to them. The founder of the museum was there when we were, and Gayle and some of the boys spent a lot of time talking to him.
Here are a few seconds of video footage that Mr. Diligence got inside the larger hanger.