West Coast

Fox River

June 7, 2020 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Last week, we had a national holiday, and one of the men in the church organized a tramp for anyone who wanted to come. Everyone who normally attends our little house church, except one man who wasn’t feeling good and another who was out of town, came, plus one other man and two tourists who were visiting one family. We had an incredible day!

I had never been on a tramp that long, so wasn’t sure how I would do. The sign said it would take two hours to reach our destination, the Ballroom Overhang up the Fox River, which is a little way up the coast of the Tasman Sea from Pancake Rocks. I’ve never walked that long at a time, let alone up a river. And with all the little children in our group? I knew it would be interesting!

Our group of 36 started out from the carpark at Fox River all together—and were soon strung out along the trail, as we knew we would be. The leader carried a radio, two others in the middle had radios, and so did the one at the end, all set to the same channel, so that we could keep in touch. At least, that was the theory; it didn’t work very well! (No one got lost, though.) Most of the time, Gayle and I were near the end of the line, and some of our boys were at the beginning. Our three older boys all helped to carry the younger children, and all five of our boys carried our family’s lunch. That left me free to focus on walking and taking photos. There were a lot of younger children who needed carrying! Fourteen in the group were under 10 years old. Besides Miss Joy, the youngest member of the expedition, there was a 1 1/2-year-old, a 2-year-old, and two 3-year-olds, who were all carried nearly all the way. We also had three 5-year-olds, plus a few slightly older ones who also needed carried over the river crossings. The older boys did most of the carrying.

This was the sign at the beginning of the track.

For the first half hour or more, we walked through areas like this. I love walking through these green tunnels of tree ferns and other trees, all dripping with moss in this cool rain forest! It feels almost magical.

Little Miss and one of her friends.

The rock formations were stunning!

A friend took this photo of Gayle and I.

This photo of Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie was taken as we were resting and regrouping after the first river crossing, about 45 minutes into the tramp. We walked about another hour before the next crossing—there were six more after this first one, before we reached our destination! No bridges; we waded through on foot.

This tiny creek was one of several that crossed the track in one area. We had to step carefully over them.

The color of the water was amazing!

Because this is a rain forest, there are ferns and moss everywhere! The variety is astounding.

I saw these rocks across the river from the track at one point.

See Mr. Intellectual and his two little sisters in the middle of the photo?

About in the middle of this next photo is a stream of water gushing out of a cave into the river.

I think this is a bush robin. It was very friendly; hopping around only a few feet from me.

This is the Ballroom Overhang, our destination! The photos don’t do it justice at all; it’s enormous. I took the first one looking straight up. We ate our lunch here, and then quickly left to start back to the cars. It had taken us three hours to get there; it took 2 1/2 hours to get back.

Off we go down the river bed!

A creek came into the river from this side canyon, across the river from where I was standing. We had just crossed the river, and another crossing was only a short distance ahead of us.

The last river crossing! If you look closely, you can see several of my boys carrying little people. The one closest to me was Mr. Diligence carrying Miss Joy. I hardly saw her that day! I fed her at this river crossing, going both ways, and at the Ballroom Overhang; otherwise, other people (teenagers) were carrying her.

Almost out to the road again! We left our vehicles at 10:30; it was 4:30 when we returned. We were all rather tired, stiff and sore, but it was a good tired, stiff and sore! That day out in nature was incredible. The scenery—what I got to see in between picking my way over rocks and around mud and through rushing, cold water, barefoot, over slippery stones, was amazing. The company was wonderful, too! To top off the day, we lit a fire on the beach and roasted sausages. It was quite cold by then, but still a great experience. We are blessed!

Fishing

April 7, 2019 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a friend called and asked if we wanted to go fishing. He has a kontiki, or longline, which pulls a fishing line a kilometer or so out to sea. They leave it out for awhile, then pull it back in and hope for a fish on each hook! Of course the boys wanted to go. I needed a nap, so Gayle and the boys and Little Miss all went. I took a nap, and Esther worked on packing the picnic we were planning to have down by the river that evening anyway, in honor of Mr. Imagination’s birthday. We followed about an hour after the boys left, and arrived just in time to see the fish being reeled in.

Here is the contraption that takes the line out to sea.

There were quite a number of sharks on the hooks. Most were small enough that they were thrown back in, but I think there were five big enough to eat. Our friend saved one for his son, and he and Simon cooked the other four on the fire for us to eat right away. They cleaned them, then put butter and seasoned salt inside the cavity. They put sliced lemons on the outside of the sharks, and wrapped the whole thing in several layers of foil, then put them directly on the coals of the driftwood fire they had started when they got to the beach.

While we waited for the sharks to cook, we roasted sausages and marshmallows over the fire.

When the sharks were cooked, we dug into them—yum!

Here is a view down the beach.

Mr. Imagination wanted me to take a picture of his rock. He says this was his best birthday celebration yet!

Brunner Mine

December 28, 2018 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Every time we go to town, we pass the Brunner Mine memorial. We’ve been wanting to stop there ever since we moved in February, but never took the time until a few weeks ago. We read a book titled The Mine’s Afire a few months ago in preparation; it tells the story of the explosion that claimed the lives of 65 miners in the Brunner Mine in 1896. Reading that story made our tour of the mine site much more meaningful.

First, we saw the shaft of the Tyneside Mine, on our side of the river.

This is where the mine actually went down.

A nice walking track has been formed from the carpark at the Tyneside Mine down to the footbridge over the Grey River.

I don’t know what this structure was, but it was interesting!

The return airway of the Brunner Mine. They had to have a very good ventilation system for the mine, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent the tragedy.

This was ruins of the brickworks that was part of the mine complex.

This wheel was used for crushing the fire clay that was used to make fire bricks.

The clay came out of this mine.

A huge roof covers the remains of the beehive coke ovens. These ovens were packed full of coal, which was then burned for a couple of days with no or minimal air to remove impurities. Then, it was quickly cooled with water and pulled out to be sold as coke.

There are piles of bricks on both sides of the shed. I’m guessing these are the bricks that were used to close the doors of the ovens when they were making coke.

Looking across the river from the Brunner site. It’s hard to believe now that this was the biggest town on the Coast at one time!

We saw this dragonfly resting on the ground.

The entire Brunner site from the Tyneside side.

From the mine, we went up the road a couple of mile to the cemetery at Stillwater. This is where a large percentage of the miners who died in the 1896 explosion were buried. We were fascinated with the old graves.

The white fence surrounds the mass grave where 33 miners were buried together, many burned so badly as to be unrecognizable. It was very sobering to visit this place where so many people mourned at once on that day. Having read the book we did, we could understand better what it was like for them; the book was narrated by the fictitious son of a survivor, whose best friends had lost fathers or brothers.

Waiuta

October 13, 2018 by NZ Filbruns 3 Comments

Last Sunday, because several people had colds, we didn’t go anywhere for church. Instead, we had a meeting at home (minus Gayle, because he’s in America spending a little time with his mother), and then packed a picnic lunch and headed off on an adventure that turned into a field trip! You know, that’s a disadvantage of being homeschooled. You never get a day off. Or, maybe it’s an advantage—depends on your perspective!

We decided to go explore Waiuta, where there use to be a gold mine. Gold-bearing quartz was discovered on this site in 1905, and at the peak there were 500 people living in the village that grew up around the Blackwater Shaft. In 1951, however, the shaft collapsed, according to a sign at the historical site, and within three months only 20 people were left. A year later, practically all the houses were gone, dismantled to be rebuilt elsewhere. We found it quite fascinating to wander around, studying the various posters that have been put up around the area, and the ruins that are left, trying to imagine the place in its heyday.

This is the road that goes out to Waiuta. First, you travel through open farmland in a valley.

You pass the old Blackwater School, in use from 1913 to 1949, according to the sign above the door.

Then, you drive through thick bush for awhile. A lot of places, it was thicker than this photo shows, with the trees meeting overhead.

We wondered if this trough was for watering horses back in the day?

At last, you come out in the open, and you have reached Waiuta. The building here was the carpenter’s shop for the mine; the smokestack had something to do with running the mine. Possibly steam power for raising and lowering men and rocks from the shaft, which was just to the right of this picture?

There are a lot of non-native plants around, left to go wild from the gardens the miners and their families had. This flowering currant was loaded with blossoms and humming with bees. Simon wants to go back in December and see if there is any fruit on it!

We followed this trail to the old swimming pool.

The swimming pool was about 36 meters long, according to my boys who stepped it off. The other end was quite deep.

Back to the mine site. This machine was used to crush the quartz so the gold could be extracted.

Part of the foundations of the building.

The old mine shaft.

Inside the chimney. Simon noticed that the bricks are stamped Brunner. One of our next field trips will be to the Brunner Mine site, between us and Greymouth. They also had brick kilns there, besides the coal mine.

I think this was the boiler room.

These bushes were in bloom. I don’t know what they were, but the scent was amazing!

Walking back up to the mine from the area where many of the miner’s houses were. The piles of rocks are tailings from the mine. The area on top has been smoothed and planted in grass. We ate lunch at the edge of the bowling green. It is amazingly flat, with very lush grass.

I took this picture to help us find our way around.

After we had explored the main area, we drove up the mountain to the Prohibition Mine. This was connected with the mine in the first area we explored, deep underground. From up here, it was 879.5 meters, or about half a mile, to the lowest level of the mine. The sign said that was below sea level! Men were lowered in a cage, and the quartz was brought back up the same way. It took four minutes to raise or lower the men, but the quartz was moved in half that time.

This was the mine office. Someone has cut a hole in the door of the strong room, and my little ones crawled in.

The view across the Grey Valley from the Prohibition Mine was incredible!

This is what is left of the building in which they extracted the gold. It was built between 1937-39, and I presume it was only in operation until 1951, when the mine closed.

This turned out to be a great way to spend an afternoon when we couldn’t be with other people! It was a beautiful day, and a very interesting site. And, I didn’t know she was doing it, but Esther published a post today about this trip, as well. You can see her pictures here.

Our New House

January 20, 2018 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are buying a house. After eight years of renting, we have finally been able to save enough for a deposit on a house of our own—and that feels good! As I mentioned in a few previous posts, we found a house about six weeks ago that we liked and could afford, and we have finally reached the stage where it’s almost certain that we’ll be getting it. We paid the deposit on it yesterday, and in the next week we’ll sign the final papers. We plan to move in two weeks.

This house is in Ahaura, in the West Coast region. We’ll be about half an hour’s drive inland, so won’t get the torrential rains that the towns right along the coast do. Most of the time, though, there is a lot more rain than here in Canterbury! This year is the exception; they are having a bad drought over there. It’s about 3 hours and 45 minutes from here, so that makes moving rather challenging. We’re thankful for friends who are willing to help us out! I’m planning to make a trip in a few days with the rest of our garden and whatever else we can fit on the load. In a week, we’ll load our shipping container, and two weeks from today we plan to finish the move. So, whatever you see coming through on the blog has already been scheduled—I won’t likely be spending any time here for a little while!

Here are pictures I took of the house when we looked at it in early December. Some of the children stayed home and took care of things while the rest of us went over that time, so I took pictures to let them get a glimpse of it while we were deciding whether to buy it.

This is the door into the laundry and then the kitchen. That’s a lemon tree in the corner, although there isn’t any fruit on it.

The master bedroom. This has an alcove to the right, for a nursery or office.

The closet in the master bedroom.

The view out the door of this bedroom.

There is a big closet/cupboard at each end of the hallway! The hallway is wide enough we can put our bookshelves in there, and do you see the clotheslines? A place to hang laundry on wet days!

Little Miss walked into this room and immediately announced that it was for her and Esther! We do plan to redo the walls soon. Not only are they painted garish shades of pink and purple, the wall covering is an old type that is a fire hazard.

I asked Little Miss which corner the bed should go in. She considered carefully, then announced, “Right here!”

The boys’ room. This needs a coat of paint, too.

The boys love the garage. Gayle stepped it off; he says it is 18 meters long—that’s nearly 60 feet! This carport goes about halfway along it.

The back yard.

Inside the garage.

We need to do some work on the outside of the house, but it’s not bad at all, considering it was built in the 1930s. One thing that was attractive to us was the quarter-acre paddock on the other side of the garage from the house. We’ll put our three sheep in it at first, and a couple of turkeys and a few chickens; next spring we’re hoping to turn part of it into a garden. We’ll be living in town on a half acre, which will be quite different for us country people. We’re hoping to pay off this place in a few years, and then buy something with more land. In the meantime, it will be a comfortable house.

Nelson Creek

November 12, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

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!

Gold Dredge

November 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Simon has been telling us about a gold dredge that he likes to ride a motorbike to in the evenings after work, so we wanted to see it while we were there. It’s across the road and through some paddocks from where he lives, near the banks of the Grey River.

We drove as far as we could, then parked the vehicles and walked the rest of the way. It was drizzling, as it did the entire time we were over there—when it wasn’t pouring! There were a few five-minute times that the sun shone, but then the clouds would close in again.

This is the gold dredge, from a distance.

We crossed this bridge to get to it.

The water weeds were quite interesting under the bridge.

A close-up of the dredge. It is enormous!

Look closely; you can see buckets inside here that are used to dig 10 meters deep. They haven’t run this dredge for several years, but they would dig out gravel and sand, then separate the rocks from the small stuff. The rocks were pushed out the back; you can see a huge pile of them behind the machine. Then, they ran water through the sand and ran it over a series of riffles. The sand ran off, and the heavier gold dust stayed behind. This dredge would move back and forth to dig up all the ground, and it took the water with it—it’s always floating. They would level out the tailings behind it, and then gorse and broom would grow on the rocks. After several years, someone would spray the gorse and broom and the ground would grow grass for animals. We were told that this is the best way to make productive land in the area. Before the dredge went through, the land was swamp, good for nothing except growing sandflies; after, we saw herds of cattle grazing on it.

Visit to Simon

November 1, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Since Monday the 23rd of October was a holiday, we decided to go visit Simon. We were pleased to discover that, even with our somewhat weak van, it only took four hours to get there, since we weren’t towing anything this time. We got there at lunchtime Saturday, and left right after lunch on Monday. We enjoyed getting to spend time with our boy and the family he lives with, and see where he lives and works. This room is his sleepout, on the deck attached to the house.

All five boys slept in the sleepout for the weekend.

This is Simon’s car, which he bought a few weeks ago. Apparently, it was completely covered with moss, which took a few hours to waterblast off.

The workshop where he spends his days.

This is the house, when you approach it from the workshop.

Simon’s sleepout is at the far right.

The front of the house. This was the Ngahere Hotel until the family Simon lives with bought it about a year and a half ago. It was in quite bad shape inside, having been very neglected even though it was still in use. They have done a lot of work and turned it into a large, nice house.

West Coast Trip

August 11, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

In the middle of July, we went to the West Coast for a few days. We had been invited to a concert put on by a community over there, so our first night we stayed at the community and attended the concert the next day. This was the view from our second-floor bedroom. It was a very frosty morning!

The main buildings of the community, from lower on the hill. Each of the three 3-story buildings houses a number of families; they all eat in the second building from the right.

We were given these two rooms, plus one more like this first one, to sleep in.

During the concert, we were seated at tables, and served a delicious dinner. This was my table setting.

This elaborate castle was set up in front of the door through which many of the performers entered.

This dinosaur was on the other side. The head moved by people inside the body pulling on ropes.

An orchestra played for awhile, and then various groups sang. After that there was a series of musicals, plays performed with a lot of singing to tell the stories. It was an incredible show!

We spent the night with some new friends near the community. I was really impressed with the bunkbeds they had built for their children!

The next day, we went to Hokitika. We went to the glass-blowing studio. They weren’t blowing glass that day, but shaping kiwis out of molten glass. We also went to the Hokitika Museum, and to the National Kiwi Centre, where we watched giant eels and a kiwi being fed, and enjoyed looking at a lot of other fish.

We spent that night with some new friends near Hokitika. They have a guest room with an ensuite, where Gayle and I, and the two youngest, slept. Little Miss entertained herself in the sink while I brushed my hair!

We went home over Arthur’s Pass. It was snowing pretty hard as we went over the top, and a lot of snow was stuck to the camper. Mr. Imagination has been wanting very badly to make a snowman, so Gayle took the snow from the camper when we stopped at the information center, and made one. Unfortunately, Mr. Imagination wasn’t very impressed. He wanted a big one!

Little Miss tried very hard to be cheerful, even though she was getting pretty tired of traveling.

We went through Christchurch to Lyttleton Harbor before we went home. It was fun to see the places we had read about in the book The Runaway Settlers—a great story about pioneering in New Zealand.

West Coast

Thank you!