24th Dec 2010 - Fossils, Migration and Midnight Christmas Services
About 10 miles - one shopping trip and one church trip both into Nelson. Today was pretty much a preparation day for Christmas. so we shopped (in New World supermarket), visited the local museum and made a brief visit to the beach. The day dawned sunny but rapidly became cloudy, and fairly windy (tho' don't appear to be many windsurfers - we never saw one) so you needed a jacket to feel warm. We shopped for christmas (all the shops are closed, thank goodness, on Christmas Day) and then visited the beach. All a bit windy and cool. I took the occasional photo of a plane flying low over the campsite (it's right by Nelson Airport). The campsite is not that wonderful since there are low flying planes and rather a lax attitude to flies ( a lot of campsites have fly killers in the kitchen - electronic or just paper - but not this one). It is, though, relaxed and friendly - though we've not seen any other cycletourers.The Nelson Museum is pretty good. Exhibits included ancient trilobites, ancient fossils, a pic of the local boy who found NZ's oldest fossil back in the 60s, and a very interesting display about the long history of migration from the UK to Nelson, including lots of first hand accounts of long voyages and the reality of months spent cramped in unhealthy damp conditions at sea. The mortality was not insignificant. On the other hand, a fair number of births on the journey took place. Plus there was the figurehead of a ship that was wrecked on Cape Farewell, a long shingle spit that juts miles out into the straits many miles north of here.We returned to the campsite and wrote postcards and then, much later, headed out to 11.30pm Christmas Eucharist at Nelson Cathedral. It was pretty much full and so we found seats in the north aisle. The service was pretty good, including some music by Corelli amongst others. The sermon by the bishop asked us to place ourselves in the nativity story - sheperds, wise men, etc. We were witneses and actors just as much as them.... There was a heavy emphasis on the broken-ness of our world. I would have liked just a bit more sheer joy and less reminding of 'our broken world' - what about the miracle of Christmas, and the birth in our hearts of Christ (Eckhart). But perhaps that is Christmas escapism....?The lit rose window looked very impressive from outside, a bit like a luminescent jelly fish, many coloured in a night ocean. I took a photo, which given the cheapness of my camera, turned out OK.
About 10 miles - one shopping trip and one church trip both into Nelson. Today was pretty much a preparation day for Christmas. so we shopped (in New World supermarket), visited the local museum and made a brief visit to the beach. The day dawned sunny but rapidly became cloudy, and fairly windy (tho' don't appear to be many windsurfers - we never saw one) so you needed a jacket to feel warm. We shopped for christmas (all the shops are closed, thank goodness, on Christmas Day) and then visited the beach. All a bit windy and cool. I took the occasional photo of a plane flying low over the campsite (it's right by Nelson Airport). The campsite is not that wonderful since there are low flying planes and rather a lax attitude to flies ( a lot of campsites have fly killers in the kitchen - electronic or just paper - but not this one). It is, though, relaxed and friendly - though we've not seen any other cycletourers.The Nelson Museum is pretty good. Exhibits included ancient trilobites, ancient fossils, a pic of the local boy who found NZ's oldest fossil back in the 60s, and a very interesting display about the long history of migration from the UK to Nelson, including lots of first hand accounts of long voyages and the reality of months spent cramped in unhealthy damp conditions at sea. The mortality was not insignificant. On the other hand, a fair number of births on the journey took place. Plus there was the figurehead of a ship that was wrecked on Cape Farewell, a long shingle spit that juts miles out into the straits many miles north of here.We returned to the campsite and wrote postcards and then, much later, headed out to 11.30pm Christmas Eucharist at Nelson Cathedral. It was pretty much full and so we found seats in the north aisle. The service was pretty good, including some music by Corelli amongst others. The sermon by the bishop asked us to place ourselves in the nativity story - sheperds, wise men, etc. We were witneses and actors just as much as them.... There was a heavy emphasis on the broken-ness of our world. I would have liked just a bit more sheer joy and less reminding of 'our broken world' - what about the miracle of Christmas, and the birth in our hearts of Christ (Eckhart). But perhaps that is Christmas escapism....?The lit rose window looked very impressive from outside, a bit like a luminescent jelly fish, many coloured in a night ocean. I took a photo, which given the cheapness of my camera, turned out OK.