Wednesday 28/08/13

Beginning at 9:00am I (Bruce) met with the Interim Committee of the ICRC to do the final planning for the conference. We took longer than expected and only finished our work at 2:00pm. The prayer service was held in the host church, Immanuel Evangelical Presbyterian Church, led by several of the ministers from UK churches.

Tuesday 27/08/13

Hay-on-Wye was our village today. It really was a village only, but such an interesting one. It is full of secondhand book shops. An idea of one man to make it the booksellers capital of the world got support and it really became that for the the English-speaking world. A bit more to the story, but I won’t go into that here.

Leaving there, we allowed double time for wrong turns before dropping our rental car off at the airport before the ICRC conference began. And we needed all the time we allowed. Yes, one of these days I’ll write about the signs here...

Monday 26​/08/13

Back to Llandudno late Sunday evening, but it was on Monday that we began to realise what we had ‘gotten ourselves into’ as I mentioned above. It turned out it was a bank holiday, good weather too, and people had come out in droves for the weekend and more on Monday. Well, we were leaving and heading for Caernarfon Castle so that was okay; the cars coming into Llandudno non-stop were going the opposite way from us.

But we got down near the Castle and missed our turn (nothing new and different for us here), and suddenly there was a mile of traffic coming our direction and scarcely moving. Bruce almost decided not to turn around to go back for the castle as he thought we would be in that long a line of traffic. However, common sense prevailed as we eventually realised they couldn’t all be going to the castle! More people heading for the beaches, no doubt (now miles away) – perfect weather for that. We turned around and fairly quickly were able to get to our turn-off. The castle was busy but not exceptionally so. It was a very good choice of castles to visit as so much of it is well preserved and well explained.

And then we meandered through the town of Caernarfon itself before heading towards our evening stay. It is really nice to be going the opposite way of all the traffic; even the secondary roads were quite busy.

Saturday 24/08/13 and Sunday 25/08/13

Tatton Park visit: the wonderful mansion (see photos posted by Bruce) was well worth the tour. But no wonder the proletariat felt the wealthy were getting too much. For all that the spending of the wealthy supposedly helps an economy, they were very selfish and proud in their spending, not to mention oppressive. And most of the wealthy seemed to get themselves into deep debt and eventually had to sell the family inheritance: people always like to spend more than they have no matter how much they have. Has anything changed???

And then on to Knutsford, a childhood hometown of Elizabeth Gaskell. They had a special display this month of the various homes of Elizabeth G., and we also enjoyed the Millennium Tapestry, a huge project of embroidery depicting the whole town of Knutsford in 2000, 40 feet long with 6.3 million stitches.

Getting lost once again after taking a wrong exit, we made it to our booked B&B in Llandudno, a seaside town of about 20,000. We did not know what we had gotten ourselves into for the weekend! I had pictured another small seaside village. It is one of the big seaside resorts, but what a special one. It has quite a history, but most impressive are the dozens and dozens of hotels built on the seaside front with the ‘promenade’ between them and the sea – a planned Victorian resort. The hotels are virtually all alike, and what a row of white buildings that made. The photos don’t do it justice. On other streets the Victorian homes and hotels and B&B’s are mostly stone, and all of these are also quite a sight. I can’t stop asking Bruce to take photos of the stone buildings.

We also did the ‘chapel’ walk to see six of the Welsh chapels. These ‘chapels’ are really big stone churches of various denominations. The independent Welsh spirit really took to the nonconformist (dissenters) movement and endured quite a bit of persecution when they refused to sign an agreement of conformity, but once there was freedom the various denominations each developed their own identify and built a chapel.

Sunday we went to Bangor, about 20 minutes away, to the Ebenezer Evangelical Church (a church that subscribes to the Westminster Confession – bar the clause on infant baptism in order to allow baptists as members), where we appreciated the services and also the fellowship with the Finnies and another visiting young couple who are missionaries.

Friday 23/08/13

We were highly impressed by the Glasgow Cathedral – if you visit Scotland, visit it! But just as impressive was the huge cemetery associated with the church and later with a broader ‘clientele’. Huge grave markers and monuments as well as more ordinary ones, a well-planned park to surround the ‘necropolis’, and the 70-foot monument of John Knox all added up to make a memorable time.

But time marched on, and we continued our travels south, enjoying the Lake District, spending a couple of hours in a yet different historic town, Keswick, in the Lake District, and snapping innumerable photos. Every area has different architecture and building materials.

And from the Lakes District onwards our travel fun began! A whole chapter could be written about road signs here, going in circles (confusing roundabouts), getting off and on the motorways when looking for a place to eat, and following directions to our abode. I plan to write up something about “interesting things we’ve noted.”

But several hours later we did find our B&B and enjoyed a full night’s sleep in a house that was constructed in 1625 and repaired in 1701 after a fire. There we enjoyed a really pleasant experience of hospitality.

Thursday 22/08/13

The drive through the rest of Skye and down through the Scottish highlands was awesome – photographs won’t do it justice. It was a long drive since we took the windy route down along Loch Lomond and then over to Stirling to view Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument. Passing south to Falkirk, we viewed the Falkirk wheel. It was too late in the day to enter any of these last places even if we had wanted to pay for this or to see the Falkirk wheel in operation. Then on to Glasgow for a late dinner and a night in a rather cramped room in Charing Cross Guest House right in the centre of the city. Not classy! But we are enjoying sampling the varied accommodation and hospitality as well as the quite different types of towns and cities.

Wednesday 21/08/13

We drove south through the Isle of Lewis and then through north and south Harris. It was cloudy and drizzly while we travelled through the rugged and impressive area of north Harris, but when we got to south Harris it turned fine – a few fluffy clouds and blue skies. Quite beautiful but rugged scenery – granite rock everywhere in South Harris. There are some nice beaches on the west coast of south Harris but New Zealand has plenty just as nice.

At the tip of South Harris is the St Clement’s church – an empty ruin still in decent condition.

We got back to the ferry, located between north and south Harris, on time for our 4:00 sailing; reporting was 45 minutes prior to sailing, similar to the NZ ferries. It was a beautiful, smooth ride to Uig, Skye. We then drove through country which was the closest to New Zealand that we have yet seen – high hills covered with green grass – only the granite showing through at places giving away that we were not it New Zealand.

Tuesday 20/08/13

We viewed local sites in Stornoway – a bit of a relief after yesterday – and also drove out to the tip of the Eye Peninsula on which we were staying. Just about every information site where we stop we’ve bought a book of some sort. We’ll have to share these out.

In the evening we had tea with Bethany and Ewan Finlayson, a young married couple (now with a first child) who had visited our church in Oamaru last year when they were working/visiting New Zealand for three months. It turned out they live near Stornoway less than two miles from our host family, the Macivers! We had haggis, neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). Can’t say we liked the haggis – a sticky, heavy, peppery mince with a small amount of oats in it and some onion. Ewan said it should have had more oats and thus been less sticky.

Monday 19/08/13

Today we travelled to the various places of interest on the west and northwest coast of the Isle of Lewis: Calanais Stones (huge stones along the lines of Stonehenge but without so many specific ideas about their pattern and purpose), historic blackhouses of crofters, a broch (double-walled stone dwelling and defence structure – the brochs had quite an amazing construction), an old Norse mill and kiln, an old church right on the coast near the top tip of the island, and then the Butt of Lewis itself with its historic lighthouse. At each stop the fierce piercing wind and some showers made for very cold sightseeing; I didn’t quite bring enough wraps (on the day trip) to handle this, but I’ve recovered.

Sunday, 18/08/13

Sunday morning in the Free Church of Scotland. Let’s just say it was quite different. We scarcely knew any of the tunes used for the Psalms; some were from the new Sing Psalms while others were from their older book which (in the copy we managed to borrow) had only sol-fa notation. Quite interesting. The service had much less of a liturgy than we have. I don’t mean it was less formal! But it was basically just the Psalms, prayer, scripture reading, and the sermon. Three Psalms were sung.

In the evening Bruce preached. Four Psalms were chosen for this service but otherwise the pattern of the service was the same as in the morning. There would be as much to get used to in their style of singing as there would be in the churches that use Genevans. (The Free Church of Scotland doesn’t use musical instruments but does have a ‘precentor’.)

We were quite surprised to learn that on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, which is where we are, the Gaelic language is the mother tongue of most people who have been any length of time in residence here. So there is still a Gaelic service in as many churches as can get a pastor who speaks Gaelic. We attended the Gaelic service. In this service the music was quite unexpectedly interesting – a whole different style of singing. The precentor actually still sings lines ahead of the congregation; the pattern for this has a couple of interesting quirks, which of course have reasons behind them. But what is most interesting is that the congregation doesn’t all sing together! They ‘repeat’ the line the precentor has ‘lined out’ but add extensions, grace notes, and passing notes; some add a bit more than others. Apparently it all has a form that one would get used to. We couldn't discern the melody line in the Gaelic singing.

Sunday dinner – the biggest Sunday dinner we’ve experienced in many a moon! And delicious, including dessert. By the time dinner and talking and coffee were finished, there was just time for a nap before the 6:00 service.

Saturday, 17/08/13

Off to a good start slightly before 8:00. First we travelled via Linlithgow and walked around the palace grounds and the very famous St Michael's Kirk. Nothing was open at the early hour, but it was certainly worth taking the time to visit there to see the palace and read the descriptions. Following that we carried on to see the ruins of Urquhart Castle at Drumnadrochit before travelling the rest of the distance to Ullapool to catch the ferry to the Isle of Lewis; the ferry left at about 6:15.

We had been on our way for 25 minutes when the ferry had to turn around due to a faulty engine. It is now repaired and, two and a half hours after our initial start we were on our way again. That means we will arrive at Stornoway after midnight!

… Midnight arrived as did the ferry, we picked up the rental car, and we managed to find our way in about 20 minutes to the home of James and Donna Maciver, our hosts for about three days. It was not easy following some rather indefinite directions in the dark, but we made it with a few turn arounds and guesses.

Friday, 16/08/13

Back into the city. Both days we’ve taken the bus, costing £1.50 one way, but definitely worth it compared to trying to drive and then pay for parking; besides, we could enjoy the sites from the bus (upper level was really good).

Today we spent most of the time at the National Museum of Scotland. Rebekah had hoped to join us, but Evelyn (1½ years old) wasn’t coping the best with teething and had slept poorly. After we returned to Rebekah and Tim’s, we drove out to the see the famous railroad bridge over the Firth of the Forth; in addition to the bridge we found the little town of South Queensferry fascinating, specifically its buildings. In the evening we walked along the shore of the river for a little while. I think the most interesting thing about the whole city has been the buildings, no matter where we’ve gone.

Thursday, 15/08/13

Today we took the bus to central Edinburgh and walked the Royal Mile. It was very crowded due to the tourists who have come for the annual Royal Military Tattoo festival held during August. The road is lined with stalls, buskers, youth passing out brochures and seeking to generate interest in the various evening shows on offer. It seems as though the festival this year is a bit bigger since they are celebrating HM QE II’s 60^th year.

Tim Macdonald had taken the day off and went into Edinburgh with us. How much better it was to have someone to point out the most important buildings and explain other things we needed to know. We also enjoyed a visit of about an hour to the Edinburgh Museum.

Tuesday/Wednesday, 13-14/08/13

We left Christchurch on Tuesday, 13/08/13 at 1:25 p.m. We arrived in Edinburgh at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 14/08/13.

Customs at Heathrow was a non-event. We filled out a card which had no questions about any food or goods we were bringing into the country, no questions about dirty shoes or visits to farms. (So much for eating up our extra snacks before landing at Heathrow, totally unnecessary. We had cashews and prunes and a banana that we finished off, which we certainly hadn’t needed with the meal on the flight to Sydney. Well, we didn’t have any desire to buy food during the seven hours in Heathrow!) Anyway, we had turned our entry card in on arrival in London, but our luggage was checked to Edinburgh. In Edinburgh we got off the plane, picked up our suitcases, and walked out the door, a bit like arrival in Palmerston North. Plenty of opportunity for crime.

Here in Edinburgh we picked up our rental car and managed to follow the google directions to Rebekah and Tim Macdonald’s with only about three wrong turns where we had to backtrack. It’s a good thing we are driving on the left side of the road because there are enough other things to get used to, not the least of which is following the road signs – or finding the street signs in the first place!

Today the big trip starts. We fly from Christchurch at 1:25pm. Arrive in Edinburgh many, many hours later.

The big news is that the Reformed Church of Oamaru was instituted as a self-standing church last Saturday. It's still small, 51 total members and several regular visitors. But we are thankful for the unity that has enabled us to take this step.

Find a few photos at: Institution of the Reformed Church of Oamaru.

I don't know how often I will be able to post. But I will post photos on Google+

Leaving soon

Just over a week before we leave!

This week I prepare for the Institution of the Reformed Church of Oamaru. A special service of institution is to be held at the church (4 Eden St, Oamaru) at 2:00 p.m. We expect quite a few visitors from Dunedin and Christchurch. But how many is quite a few? So we will get some extra chairs just in case.

Reformed Church of Oamaru

The service will be led by Rev. Erik Stolte and I will be preaching the sermon. Rev. Michael Willemse will lead in a congregational prayer. Michael grew up in Oamaru so it is great that he can be with us.

Then Michael will lead the service and preach for us on Sunday morning and I will lead the service and preach in the afternoon.

Monday we drive to Christchurch and then depart at 1:25 p.m. on Tuesday. We are supposed to arrive in Edinburgh on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.