Report 17.

Our destination after the glaciers was Greymouth, on the west coast. Plan was to spend a couple of days there just vegging, but the extra day at the glacier cut that back to one. Along the way, winding along the coastline, we encountered, as elsewhere in NZ, numerous one-way bridges. A couple of them, as in this picture, also doubled, or is it tripled, as railroad bridges. It would have been fun to have a train “give way” as we crossed in front of it, but it didn’t happen. We did see evidence that this is a functioning RR track.

That evening we caught sundown over the Tasman Sea. Partial cloud cover gave promise of the perfect sunset picture, so we made an effort. Nice thing about digital cameras is you can just keep shooting, at least until the battery runs down. Mine was weak when we had to quit, but I think this picture is a pretty good capture of what we saw.

Greymouth turned out to be headquarters for an Easter weekend old car rally, so the town and our campground were filled with old cars. (Holiday parks typically have accommodations ranging from tent sites to camper sites with electricity and water hook-ups, to bare cabins – bring or rent your linens, etc., - to motel rooms.) And, old-car drivers filled the restaurant where we ate so we had a nice visit – and meal. I had a ‘West Coast Delicacy” – whitebait patties. “Bait” makes you wonder, but they were great. White fish flakes cooked in a pancake-like batter.

Saturday dawned cold and windy. We could have stayed another day – our return flight from Christchurch was not until Monday – but the weather was not conducive to beach-walking and relaxing, so we decided to head for Christchurch (it just now occurs to me that maybe we should have begged a ride in an old car for their day’s tours around Greymouth, but it’s a little late now for good ideas like that!). Also, we had a goal of Easter in the Christchurch cathedral we had visited in Feb. so we left for Christchurch. Another spectacular crossing of the Southern Alps.

Along the way we got to wondering if we wanted to risk another Anglican service. Some newspaper remarks by the Christchurch bishop made us think we didn’t. We also got to thinking we had “done” Christchurch in Feb., so there really wasn’t much attraction in staying there two days. And, Susie says, I was driven by urge to escape the confines of the little van, what with the weather, drizzly, as we approachedChristchurch, indicating that we might face a lot of van-time. Bottom Line: we found we could change our flight with a modest penalty, check our van in early, and fly “home” Saturday evening, so we did.

For

Easter? Here’s Susie’s report:

The next question: Where do we worship on Easter?  Well, we let "our fingers do the walking" and found a Methodist Church near by and went sight unseen.  What an experience.  It was an OOOOOOLD musty, dusty place with a mixture of all nationalities and ages.  I have mentioned the Maoris (the earliest settlers as were our Native Americans)--anyway, many of the worshipers were Maoris and the "Anglos" in attendance were approaching octogeniarism !!!! But, it was a great service.  The minister was a "little ROUND woman" who had taught in a seminary and said she was trying to put to use what she had taught students and realized that what she taught didn't always work---RIGHT---anyway, this was an old church whose membership had dropped to 20 and in the last year it was growing again.  There were probably 50-60 people in attendance on Sunday.  The woodworking was beautiful and they had a PIPE organ, so it must have been a happening place in the past.   The organist was a rover, so he had to hurry to another church after this service.  The anthems were familiar words but not so familiar music and the minister was the song leader who (me thinks) wasn't familiar with this music either.   All the decorations were done by the children to gussy up the place for Easter---paper butterflies, paper flowers and green and yellow crepe paper streamers at the end of each pew--The streamers had glitter which managed to end up on most of the pew cushions (which, themselves, came over on the original British ships).   Would love to have gotten friend Connie's commentary on the decor.  The service and the sermon were very well thought through and we felt welcomed.  One creative idea: At the end of her time with the children, the minister started to hand out Easter eggs but there were none in the basket – they had been replaced by rocks. At this point, the congregation, who had been primed and supplied with chocolate eggs, all said, “ We have some for you!” so we gave our eggs to the kids. A nice lesson: When hard things are handed to us (rocks) they are often replaced by sweet things; i.e., the stone was removed from the tomb to reveal that Jesus was alive and ready to make our lives full of goodness (sweetness). All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and felt warmed by this Easter experience.   As we were in the car, I read a bulletin insert from the "local clergy leaders" stating their dissatisfaction with the American efforts in Iraq--should be left to the United Nations.  I told Rob it was a good thing that I hadn't read that during the service.  He said that he had but felt it WISE not to point it out to me.  God was with us on Easter (and always) and allowed us a time of peace in church. 

Love to All,

Susie and Rob

[Note from Rob. Read in the paper a week later that the church is being sold and will be demolished and replaced by commercial property, though there is a neighborhood effort to try to prevent this from happening. Sad. Guess church leaders have bigger things on their minds.]

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