Pictures

A Sunrise Reminder

April 15, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

It feels like winter has suddenly arrived these last three days, with chilly-almost-enough-to-frost mornings, windows covered in condensation, and the warm woodfire-heated air that you just can’t beat.

It’s the season for fluffy socks, thicker blankets, outer wraps for a while in the mornings, and book reading. Lots of book reading (or at least I can dream, right…?).

We aren’t in winter—yet—but it’s been knocking on the door, saying it’s on its way.

We had our first winter storm system come through two days ago, with the cold wind blowing up from the south, rain beating against the sides of the house, and later, three or four different thunderstorms that passed over, leaving a few rumbles and more rain in their wake.

Then, yesterday morning as I settled into the couch for my Bible time, facing the westward windows looking toward the Paparoa Ranges and my favorite view at sunset, I saw this:

…and I decided that that seat wasn’t just my favorite at sunset. It’s also my favorite for sunrise, though my back is to the east.

We hadn’t gotten a lot of rain the night before (or maybe I just didn’t hear it?), but there was the most beautiful skiff of snow on the mountains—the first snow of the season. And I got to watch it with the sunrise colors playing along the peaks, before the fog from the river rose to meet the sunshine and blocked our view.

What a gift.

In this time of uncertainty, knowing that things might never be totally the same again, let’s look to the One who is certain. Our Rock.

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” —Psalm 18:2

What parts of nature are you enjoying at the moment? Are you reminding yourself of some of God’s special attributes right now, too? If so, which ones?

Fox Glacier and Harihari – January 2020

March 25, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Finally, I’m back with another installment of the trip I took with friends back in late January! I didn’t realize how quickly time has passed since my last post, but here we are again with more pictures!

After walking up to view the Franz Josef Glacier, we headed further south—about half an hour’s drive, I think—to the Fox Glacier. There, we were all quite hungry, so we sat on the rocks bordering the temporary car park and had lunch together. After walking for several hours, even sandwiches are appealing! Only made better with a bit of delicious salami, fresh tomatoes, and salt and vinegar chips, of course. 🙂

This is the Fox River and highway bridge, taken from our picnic area. Notice how the sand and gravel are contoured; if I remember right, the water came most of the way up to under this bridge when there was heavy rain in the area last year—the bridge further north, over the Franz Josef River, was washed out at that time.

Did you notice I said “temporary” car park? This is why:

I was rather confused about our bearings for a little while, but when we got here, I knew where we were. I was hoping to show our friends the lookout at the end of this track, but what I didn’t realize was that the original road that went out to the glacier had to be closed because of extensive slips. As in, I’m not even sure it’s open yet for people to drive back to get to the glacier face itself! What we were walking on here was the glacier outlook road, but instead of driving it like we used to be able to do, we had an hour or two’s worth of walking.

The road was really damaged with all the flooding, and those of us who had always ridden past these spots found it quite interesting to see all the changes!

Then we got up to the viewpoint itself, and—woah. The track had to be rerouted at least once, and I couldn’t believe the amount of gravel, rocks, and boulders that had been washed down this river during the flooding. This used to be a fairly flat riverbed; in places, it looked like it had risen 1-2 meters in depth! The slip about in the middle of the picture is on the access road to the walk to the glacier face, which I’ve been up before, but weren’t able to go to this time.

And one of my favorites: A fern tree! Unfortunately, the clouds hadn’t lifted in this valley as they had at the Franz Josef Glacier, so we weren’t able to see the Fox Glacier itself.

On our way back, we took a detour on a narrow little track that created a loop from one point on the main track to further down. It added some time to our walk back, but we were happy for a change of scenery, as it really felt like we got into the bush from there! I thought it was interesting to see the glacier terminal signs, and wondered how people would have been able to figure out the dating for these!

This was sort-of difficult to see in real life (I wasn’t entirely certain which tree was which) but I thought the sign was funny!

Moraine Walk. Highly recommended—probably one of my most favorite tracks that day!

And we were exhausted. The boys found a soft moss-covered rock to rest on for a bit.

On our way home, we stopped for a short look at Lake Matheson—but after walking about 18 km that day, we decided we had had enough and wouldn’t add another hour and a half to our day’s total. I’d love to explore that area more some other time, though!

So we stopped for a picture at the photo stand (I’d love to see what this looks like when the weather is clear!), picked up some coffee from the cafe, and headed home.

Crossing the Franz Josef river on the temporary bridge (this was the one that washed out last year):

Getting to one of the many roadworks between Franz Josef village and Hokitika (this little tractor was pretty neat!):

And stopping in Harihari for a short break. While there, we looked across at a little park and decided to explore a bit before heading on.

They had a mosaic maze there! We met the woman who masterminded the project, a local who does a lot of work with pottery and other crafty things. She provides the tiles and other materials, you draw your message or picture on it, then she’ll fire it and place it somewhere in the maze.

There are lovely shard mosaics around the outside, as well as these fun “stepping stones”:

And the maze itself! I didn’t actually go all the way through it, because I got distracted by reading the individual tiles. The pillar in the middle has a sundial on the top, and the sides are made from pieces of old china cups, plates, and saucers.

Some tiles were sad:

Some were fun:

But put together, it was beautiful! The woman who works to keep the maze up also does a lot of the gardening around, and she was pulling weeds while we were there. She says that as she has time, she’s looking forward to putting a lot more flowers and shrubs in on the grounds.

Another sad tile:

And some were sweet:

I loved the pillars that graced the outskirts of the park, too!

In all, the Harihari park was a lovely place to stop and stretch after traveling for a while, and I’d love to spend more time exploring there! It was a lovely end to a long day!

After being gone all day, we were ready for a bit of a break—but Thursday, we headed up to Arthur’s Pass to explore! I’ll share those pictures next.

Have you seen a mosaic maze before? I remember right after the Christchurch earthquakes that people got together with all their old family china that had broken, and they made mosaic pieces out of them—but I don’t remember seeing any of the resulting works of art.

Franz Josef Glacier – January 2020

February 21, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Somewhere around three weeks ago now, I took a trip with some friends to do exploring around the glaciers 2 1/2 – 3 hours south of us. I’ve loved that area of the country for years, but it’s been nearly four years since I was down there last! It was a very cloudy morning when we set off—and stayed that way for quite a while—but just as we were getting close to our first destination, the Franz Josef glacier, I saw sunshine on the mountainside ahead!

This area has gotten an immense amount of rain this past year, causing quite a few washouts. I believe this was the surface of the original access road to the Franz Josef glacier, now impassable. I’m glad they built another road next to it, so we could still get there!

Walking out to the Franz Josef glacier, I looked up—and the sky was clearing! There was a little waterfall just ahead of us, too.

And then . . . the glacier itself! Pouring down a valley of its own like a blue sea suspended in space.

The walk up the Franz Josef river to the glacier is so pretty . . . all the different colors, and I never tire of watching and listening to flowing water!

Just as you get onto the riverbed, there is a gorgeous waterfall that comes down the hill to the right. It splits into several different forks at that place, and there are some large rocks to use as stepping stones across the little creek.

Then, further along, there is an interesting rock formation. I’ve found it fascinating every time I went, but what I thought was especially interesting was the fact that there are no visible horizontal scrape marks as I’ve heard are often the case on glacial sites. I had to wonder what the explanation for their absence would be—if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!

Another favorite feature of mine: The green and red lichen on the river rocks.

We made it to the top and the end of the trail! Unfortunately, due to the glacier’s melting, we were still one kilometer away from the glacier’s face—and the distance to the glacier was quite noticeable compared to when I was there four years earlier!

It’s still beautiful, though.

Looking down the valley before heading back. . . .

The vegetation here is such a gorgeous green color!

One of the girls we were with mentioned that you could see evidence of the smoke from the Australian bushfires in the snow. Sure enough—there were distinct yellow patches in the snow! I did have to wonder why some parts stayed white, while other parts were yellow!

And one last point of interest: If you climb a little track that zig-zags up a hill, you get a different lookout on the glacier. It’s a lovely view any way you look at it, but they had an interesting sign up showing where the glacier was ten years ago. What a difference!

In all, I highly recommend this walk if you come to our area. I also recommend going on a sunny day—it’s much more interesting then! And once again, I was reminded of how good our Father is to give us such beautiful things in creation to look at!

What natural features in your area have you gone to see lately?

Pororari River Walk – January 2020

February 4, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

Two weeks ago, we had two sisters come to stay with us for a week. While they were here, they wanted to explore the West Coast, so we recommended a few places to them, and in the end, I went with them on their different day trips around. I’ve loved West Coast scenery ever since I first came over here, so it was a special treat for me to see so much of it again in such a short amount of time!

On Monday the week they were here, I went with them to the Pancake Rocks (a popular tourist destination around here—a lovely spot!). After going around the walk there, we explored a cavern in the area, took a short bush walk down to the beach, then headed back to the lovely Pororairi River, where there is a longer walk back through the bush along the river.

I’d never been on this particular walk before, so I really enjoyed it. The water was so green, as well as the vegetation—they get a lot more rain on that side of the mountains than we do. And we saw a shag!

Aside from the usual temperamental nature of New Zealand’s rivers, I think this would be a lovely river to take a kayak down. It was very peaceful the day we were there, with lovely clear water. There were a few fast-moving rapids, but aside from those, I think a trip would be quite enjoyable!

Even just walking alongside the river was enjoyable, though–the deep greens were spectacular!

And then, after walking for about an hour, we came to a crossroads and decided the swinging bridge we had been told about must be quite a distance on yet. Since it was getting late and we were tired, we decided to head back—but a Canadian couple who were coming along just then reinforced our faith in our guide’s words. Sure enough, another five minutes or so along the trail, we got to the swing bridge!

In all, it was a lovely walk, and if we have visitors come at some stage, I’d recommend it. It’s a great way to get out into the bush of NZ and still see some spectacular sights along the way. We even saw—and smelled!—some wild goats on the trail!

The day after we did this, we took a trip down to our local glaciers. But I have quite a few pictures from that, so it may take a bit to narrow down which ones to share!

Have you done any walking lately? What are some of your favorite spots in your area?

Hastings, North Island Trip 2019

January 9, 2020 // Esther Filbrun Leave a Comment

I finally got around to getting these pictures sorted out this morning! Back in the middle of November, smack-dab in the middle of NaNoWriMo, when I was more than half distracted with trying to get those 1,667+ words done each day, my brother, Simon, and I decided on the spur of the moment to take a 15- or 16-hour trip up to the North Island to help some friends move down to our area.

8 am on the West Coast highway—a beautiful time of day to be out driving!

We decided to go on a Thursday evening, after arriving home late from a trip across to Christchurch (which in itself was a 3-hour drive home!), booked our ferry tickets that night, and took off about 8 am on Saturday. It’s a good 4 hours up to Picton, where you meet the inter-island ferry, then you have to wait for a while until the ferry takes off, and once you do, it’s a 3-4 hour ride.

Boarding the Interislander in Picton around 1 pm

I was so thankful to be out of the vehicle, even if it did mean I was on a boat! I’m not one that necessarily enjoys traveling, but it was fascinating to explore the Kaitaki, the Interislander ferry we took from Picton, on the South Island, to Wellington, on the North Island.

Bluebridge ferry—the other ferry company going between the islands.

Once settled in on deck, Simon and I had fun exploring the top story (level 10), where we had a great view of Picton and the surrounding harbor! This boat had lots of outdoor seating (you can just see that on the right of the below picture) for fine days—unfortunately, it was far too rainy to want to be out there long the day we went. The two big orange things in the middle of the picture are lifeboats, and in the distance on the middle left, you can see a white warehouse with “Edwin Fox” on it. If you are ever in Picton, I’d highly recommend you go there!

To our right, there was a little sailing club of some kind. All the white sails are people learning how to sail; it was fascinating to watch them learn to tack with the wind! They balanced the one-person boats by shifting their weight from one side to the other. Several almost capsized while we watched, then they quickly slid over to the other side and turned the sail to get them back on course.

Finally on our way! The Marlborough Sounds were absolutely beautiful, even if it was an overcast, rainy day.

A mussel farm:

There was also an outdoor viewing platform that ran almost all the way around deck 7, underneath the lifeboats on deck 8 (we saw the tops of them from deck 10). Simon and I spent a lot of time exploring around there, too, and it was nice to be sheltered a little from the weather while still having a clear view of the scenery.

There were LOTS of houses dotted among all the different islands and formations in the sounds! I was somewhat surprised at the number, but I think it would be lovely to have one of these secluded places as a summer holiday spot.

We saw quite a few salmon farms, too:

And more mussel farms . . . I didn’t count, but I know there were a good number of these, too!

Wellington harbor, at last! Once you disembark at Wellington, there’s approximately another 4-hour drive up to Hastings, where our friends lived.

Coming into the dock . . . Wellington was a bit sunnier than Picton had been!

Even though it was a bit early to eat, Simon and I got fish and chips in Upper Hutt, then wound our way up into the hills toward the Remutaka Pass, looking for a place to pull off to eat. We found a nice quiet place overlooking the Macaskill Lakes—what a lovely spot! Water from the Hutt River is pumped up into these lakes when the river water is clean, and then it is held here for use as Wellington’s water supply when needed. It was quite the view to enjoy after driving or riding the ferry all day, and we felt quite refreshed when we hit the road again by 5:30 or 6.

We finally arrived in Hastings about 11 pm. To say we were bushed feels like an understatement! Sunday, we got to rest, then Sunday afternoon and evening, we loaded up.

Then on the road again Monday morning by 7 am, and down to the ferry in Wellington by noon! It was raining fairly hard Monday, but from our place in line, we still enjoyed our view of the Kiarahi, the Interislander ferry that took us from Wellington to Picton.

Just a tiny portion of Wellington, our nation’s capital, here:

Pulling up the ropes and casting off—farewell, Wellington! I wasn’t so sad to be leaving. I much prefer our quieter roads here on the South Island!

The second sailing was slightly rougher at first than our sailing Saturday. But about half-way across Cook Strait, the waves smoothed out—I was thankful for that! Can you see the two white specks in the middle of this picture, just above the water on the hillside? Those were the guiding markers to help us enter the Marlborough Sounds.

The markers closer up, once we were in the sounds:

We met several ferries coming out of the sounds as we were winding through them. I think this one was the Kaitaki, which we took on our Saturday sailing.

And Picton harbor again—with the sun out this time! I was excited to be back on the South Island again. Only four hours to home from here!

In all, it was a great trip. Although I didn’t take any pictures up in Hastings, I loved being back up there again and worshiping with the congregation on Sunday. I spent three weeks there a year and a half ago, so that area has a special piece of my heart. I’m not sure I’d recommend taking such a rushed trip up there and back again, though. 😉

What was the last big trip you took?

Book Haul!

October 17, 2019 // Esther Filbrun 2 Comments

Several weeks ago, perhaps a month ago now, one of my brothers came home from examining the “treasures” at our local green dump (read green very loosely; that’s what it’s supposed to be, anyway!), and told me there were some old books left there. One was even an old fairy tale book! A day or two later, I took my normal walk around the block, and then we stopped to look at the books. What a treasure trove! If I had known what there was, I would have gone down earlier—but even so, I am pretty tickled with what they found!

The one of the most interest to me was an old 1880s or 1890s copy of Dr. Chase’s Last Receipt Book and Household Physician. I had never seen a book quite like this before, and there are some interesting recipes in here as well as some fascinating (if not scary!) advice. It’s also interesting to see some of the “new” ideas mentioned here, such as the discovery that milk keeps better if it’s chilled down in ice as soon as it has been milked out—what an amazing invention! 🙂

Book Haul 03 — The top is captioned “A Modern Dairy Scene”. Left bottom is the “recent” Swedish discovery (that is really Yankee!), and right bottom is a method to make butter in hot weather…which I think would make some foul-tasting butter!

Also of interest was an old self-pronouncing dictionary. I was sad that the front cover and front pages are missing, but it’s still interesting to look through the definitions.

Book Haul 04 — I love the old page ends on this one!

Then there’s Lily at her Grandmama’s, a delightful old-style picture book, and Northland Heroes written by the author of Haiawatha and containing a story of Beowolf as well as at least one other old story. The “fairy tale book” ended up being a newer (1950s) reprinting of Alice in Wonderland—I’m looking forward to reading this; I’ve been wanting to for a long time! And another newer book called The Whole Person in a Broken World (an interesting title, at least!), which promises to be good if I ever sit down to read it.

Book Haul 05 — Far right-top: “Waltham School Standard 2 A. Special Prize Awarded to Mavis Palmer for Neatness.”

I just love the illustrations in Lily at her Grandmama’s!:

Book Haul 06 — “…He has entangled his line in the tree, and I do believe he has caught the hook in his own finger.”

The other three books I got that day were not quite as interesting to me, but a friend of mine is interested in them—an old Latin Lessons book, a Latin Primer, and Henri Bué First French Book! Unfortunately, I never learned anything about either French or Latin, but I have a friend who has studied both and taught her daughter elements of both languages, and she’s interested in taking them into her own collection.

We gathered all the books we could find, and stuffed them into a reusable yellow shopping bag to carry home. It’s funny how you forget how heavy some things can be—and books must be among the heaviest!—but thankfully it wasn’t too far to haul them home. 🙂

The day after our dump find, then, a bag of several different books was given to us, and at the bottom of the stack was a very old English Bible! It was printed in 1855, and Mom surmised that it must have made a trip across the ocean in the bottom of someone’s sea chest at some stage. There are fascinating old documents in here—I’ll include a few pictures for you.

“Arthur Hayworth. From his affectionate Mother. Surfolk(?), June 8th, 1868.”

Bible inserts — Left: A prayer to be prayed in England and Wales, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed (isn’t that a neat name!?) on 12th August, 1866, because of the cholera and cattle plague. Top right: Several sheets of hymns for gospel services. Bottom right: A Sunday School paper, with the front page a picture of Greenlanders.

In all, this was quite the book haul, and I’m quite pleased about some of the finds we have. Keep your precious old books. You never know what a treasure they might be for the next generation!

What’s the oldest book you have ever owned? Have you rescued books from a dump before?