December 17 - Christmas

Because of the pandemic, I have heard some people say that this year Christmas should be cancelled. Personally, I think that is not possible. For centuries, Christians around the world have celebrated Christmas as the birth of Jesus, the Christ Child. Because I am part of that faith community, cancelling Christmas is not part of my thinking. Of course, in 2020 we may need to make a few adjustments to our traditions and in the way we choose to celebrate.

For us, there are two major components of our Christmas celebrations. We like to participate in a church worship service and we like to be with family. This year we have needed to adjust to changes with both of these.

Actually, the church service component has been the easier change. Although our church has mostly been open for services with limited capacity, since the beginning of the pandemic, Lyle and I have chosen to participate in online worship only. Initially, this felt a little strange, but over the months our attitude has shifted. It has been very nice to sleep in on Sunday, grab a coffee and turn on the computer for the beginning of the worship service. We are fortunate in that Patrick, our minister, has a good on line presence and his wife, Penelope, is fantastic at managing the technology aspects. Various parishioners participate in the service and afterwards we all join in a zoom chat over coffee in our separate living rooms. This year, although we will miss the physical contact hugs from fellow believers, I think that the transition to an on line service will be manageable.

The more difficult adjustment will be being alone in our house over the Christmas season. We have known for several months that our Winnipeg family would not be travelling this year, and now that Alberta has finally taken a stand, our Calgary family will also be staying at home. We will miss seeing and hugging our children and grandchildren but Lyle and I totally understand their adherence to health and safety precautions. It will be a different year for many people.

As we depart from usual traditions, our families have made some preparations to fill the gaps. For the past few weeks, we have joined together for zoom visits. Each visit has had a Christmas theme. We take it in turns to read Christmas stories to each other. In our house, needs be that Lyle is the reader and I am the page turner but it all works out. For Christmas Eve, we will zoom over our traditional meal – not sure how that will go both with timing and with conversation with our mouths full of good food! Then on Christmas Day there will be another call as the little ones show us their presents from Santa. Our church service is also set for Christmas morning using zoom. We are just hoping that the system doesn’t crash with so many other folk also connecting this way.

So, that is our plan. I do hope that you are able to celebrate Christmas in some way. Certainly our celebrations won’t be the traditional ways of the past and my thoughts and prayers go out to so many who will be seeing the season through eyes of grief, sadness and loneliness. Hopefully, with the promise of Christmas and also a vaccine on the horizon, 2021 will be a better year for us all.

The picture with this post is of the Christmas tree in our living room. The tree is nearly thirty-years-old and many of the ornaments are older than that. Putting up our tree is another of our Christmas traditions.

 

Sue and Lyle's Christmas tree

 

December 7 - New Zealand, South Island

I am still plodding along the trail between the Alps near Mt. Cook towards Christchurch and still happily remembering our New Zealand holidays. On my virtual walk I have now completed 105 miles and am more than halfway on my virtual route.

Today, I want to share some of my memories of the south island. They are a bit higgledy-piggledy all over the map because that is the way our itinerary took us. I do know that if we ever had the opportunity to return to New Zealand, we would make travelling around the south island a priority. The scenery was spectacular.

I didn’t tell you yet about Moeraki. Moeraki is about a half hour drive south of Oamaru. The beach is known for the huge boulders that are visible on the sand at low tide. The boulders are spherical in shape and for all the world look like giant marbles. The rocky balls were at least half as tall as we were. It was quite the sight.

Like most tourists with a land itinerary, we made our way to Queenstown, Te Anau, and Milford sound. Queenstown reminded us a little of Banff. It was a very touristy type of town and so we did the regular touristy type of things – wandered around the souvenir stores and took a boat excursion on the lake. The water was crystal clear and the captain of the boat assured us that because of the purity of the water, he never had any problems with rust or salt corrosion. As for the scenery – well, I think that I have mentioned already – it was amazing.

 We loved the lake at Te Anau and spent two nights there. We nearly didn’t drive from there to Milford sound On the morning we were due to depart, the fog was dense and we debated as to whether or not we would be able to see anything at the sound. Apparently, the fog and mist are frequent occurrences around the area. However, we took a chance and by the time we arrived, the fog cleared. The sky was blue and the sun fairly sparkled on the mountain tops.

Further north of Milford sound we came to Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. The glaciers are only twenty-five miles apart and you can easily stay at one and make day trips to the other. We stayed at Franz Josef. The walks around the area were great and the views magnificent.

However, if there was ever any evidence of global warming and climate change, we found it on the two kilometre drive from the highway to the car park at Fox. Originally  the glacier would have extended right to the coast. Now the drive to the car park takes you through a valley of bare ground. There are signposts marking the retreat of the glacial ice over the decades. The receding glacier was a stark reminder of what is happening to our planet with climate change and global warming.

There are three pictures with this post. The first one is of me standing beside one of the huge boulders at Moeraki. As for the next two...well, I have no idea of exactly where they were taken. Suffice to say that we came across an idyllic pull-off somewhere on the coastal road. We were in the camper van and decided to spend the night there. The first of these pictures was taken during the afternoon and the second was of a brilliant sunset over the water of the Tasman Sea.

I hope you have enjoyed travelling with me around New Zealand. I hope too that before too long we will be able to travel again in real time. 

 

Sue with boulder at Moeraki

Overlooking the Tasman Sea

Sunset over the Tasman Sea