Small town New Zealand.

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I arrived in Nelson via water taxi (Portage to Picton) and Intercity coach (Picton to Nelson); I shared the water taxi with two German couples (the relevance of this will become clear later).

At Picton I bumped into the Danish couple, John and Heidi, who I had met in the Bay of Islands. It was nice to hear what they had been up to; I think I will meet more and more people as I meet more and more people. They were going on to Motueka near Abel Tasman National Park, whereas I was to stay in Nelson; on reflection, I should have continued onto Abel Tasman rather than staying in Nelson.

Nelson is OK, I think it would be difficult to rate it much more highly than that. I saw the cathedral that took from 1800's to the 1950's to complete, and South Street which is a row of historic pioneer houses. That is about all Neson has to offer, besides the geographical centre of New Zealand which is in a nearby park that I missed.

The highlight of my stay in Nelson came in the eveing, at the Boat Shed restaurant. With not much to do and having struck up no converstions in the hostel I decided to eat out at one of Nelson's top restaurants. It was really good, I had paua and crayfish, both delicacies. It was well worth the wait for the table, I couldn't believe how busy they were on a monday night not in peak season. It wasn't cheap but Nelson is famous for it's seafood so I thought I'd splash out.

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Photos

Historic South Street
All original 1860s houses

The view from the Boat Shed restaurant.
I can highly recommended this place for good seafood.