Nelson

We arrived in Mapua a small community about 15 miles from Nelson at the top of the South Island after a 7 hour drive from the Glaciers in heavy rain.  The house we are staying in belongs to a Swiss family and is at the bottom of his garden with beautiful views over the estuary at Mapua.  Typically they were not in when we arrived but the door was open and they had left a message to just go in and “make yourselves at home”.  Can you imagine leaving a door unlocked in England!

The castello at Mapua.

Nelson is a laid back city as is much of this area.  Lots of artists and dreadlocks visible!!  It has a nice vibe which came to the fore when they began their Arts festival with a street masked parade and party.  The school entries for the parade did a fantastic job.  A highlight was the video projection on to the Cathedral which told the story of Nelson. They had a particularly good “street art” exhibition featuring some pieces by Banksy which I loved. 

Check out the knitted water fountain cover!!

Up the coast is the Abel Tasman National Park which can only be reached by sea taxi in the middle sections.  Amazing golden sand and stunningly beautiful beaches.  We had a lovely walk to a beach from Marahau to Coquille Bay near the south entrance for a picnic lunch. We had the beach totally to ourselves except for some gulls who followed us around. 

A picnic with the gulls!

The drive further north to Golden Bay involves a 16 mile trip up and over a mountain to Takaka-the only route.  This is a lovely boho town with lots of organic/ wholefood/ arty types.  Some ordinary folk too!!!  We ventured north to the most northern point of South Island and found an area of sacred Maori Springs where 40,000 litres of water per second bubbles up from underground springs. We drove along an unsealed road and walked to a remote beach on the west coast and saw some amazing rock formations. 

West Coast grandeur!

On the way back we stopped for dinner at The Mussel Inn which brewed their own beer-good too!   I had a chicken pie which in various guises a national institution in NZ!  Steve had the most enormous mussels I have ever seen. We came back for a second look to see the top end of the Abel Tasman with another beach picnic where we saw  a grand total of 4 other people on this beach!! 

Lunch by Golden Bay

This area has an interesting community in that Germans settled here in the late 1800s.  10% of the population of the area still speak German.  How weird is that? Alternative technology is very apparent here too.  Sawdust toilets in one of the cafes we visited.

 Tomorrow we are off to discover what North Island has to offer with a 4 hour ferry trip to Wellington.

Oh and we watched the rugby QFs.  England lost, enough said!!