Days 69 and 70: Taupo Tempo

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The tempo in Taupo slowed down markedly over the weekend, but the traffic is back up to full strength today. It is seriously aggravating my shoulder; I hope Rotorua and/or Gisborne are quieter.

I have either sunburned or steamed my nose; I did walk too close to a cloud of steam at the Craters. Except for 8 a.m. church and a walk to the lake at sunset, I spent all day yesterday hiding from the sun.

Church was, once again, very, very Rite II, which seems to be the norm in New Zealand, but there was a visiting bishop, who conducted the service and slipped into the traditional wording during the actual consecration of the bread and wine. I was grateful. He spoke well, too, and preached an interesting sermon on "Salt and Light."

The substitution of a modern "Affirmation" for the Nicene Creed really bothers me. The creeds are our most basic link with the historic church, far more so than the rest of the Prayer Book. It also annoys me to confess, instead of the General Confession, that I have "not been what I claimed to be" and to ask the Lord's forgiveness for that. Not only am I, by and large, what I claim to be, but the focus seems to be all wrong, a concern with one's appearance before others rather than one's actions before oneself and before God. Compare, "We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts...." from the Prayer Book.

The church, St. Andrew's, had a gorgeous stained-glass window, in a modern style. The foreground was a tree, with a bird singing in its branches. Beyond that stretched either the roofs of a town or a flowery meadow. Then there was a green hill in the middle distance, and either snowy mountains or a lake in the background.

A banner on the window identified it as "The Story Window," and I inquired whether it had been inspired by "Leaf by Niggle." It had not, as it turned out; "Story" in this case was a surname.

I went back to church on Monday to see if I could photograph the window, and I spent half an hour talking with the sacristan. She was kind and friendly, but she was obviously very much in support of the modernization of Anglican worship.

I was polite, of course, only speaking up when she said proudly that New Zealanders found the concern in Britain and the U.S. over women bishops quite incomprehensible. I tried to explain, since she had brought the subject up, but she did not want to hear the conservative side of the argument. She soon forgave my indiscretion, however, and told me all about the Story family and their window.

When I went to the lake with Teresa, I had seen a McDonald's in downtown Taupo with a vintage aircraft parked outside it, and Teresa had mentioned casually that people could eat their food inside it if they liked. After I left the church on Monday, I went and found it.

It proved to be a DC-3, built in the U.S. in World War II but quickly decommissioned and sold to a start-up airline in New Zealand. The airline soon failed, and the aircraft spent several decades as a crop-duster before being bought by McDonald's of Taupo in 1990.

Its interior had been completely refitted as a dining area, with child-size seats and tables. The cockpit was still original, but glassed in. Eating there was obviously impractical for me, so I went back down the boarding stairs to the main restaurant and ordered a small fry. It was $2.10, so I wish I had ordered a hot chocolate instead.
Even better, I could have just gotten a postcard of the plane, but I didn't see those until I was eating the fries.

In the afternoon I went to the post office and mailed off another envelope full of souvenirs. The clerk wouldn't let me mail the other lens of my reading glasses; she said if I did the envelope would have to go as a parcel, as the lens was not a document. I considered offering to write something on the lens, which is probably destined for the Lions Club anyhow, but I decided not to be a smart-aleck. She was just doing her job.

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Photos

Seating in DC-3
Child-size, unfortunately