New Zealand Part 16 - Nelson

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Functional days, opera and not getting much done

From the depths of spidervill in the Pelorus sounds, we drove out in the stormy weather heading to our next stop of Nelson. Apparently of the total inhabitants of New Zealand 45000 of them live here, it is some kind of cultural and arty Mecca. The drive there was again much longer than we were expecting, and I couldn’t help with any of the driving as my foot was now elephant size (not sure if it was due to the original bites or whether Mr crushed spider bit me with his final dying breath??). we passed through the town of Havlock which was a little bit yokel if you know what I mean (brothers and sisters holding hands!!), so we didn’t stay longer than filling up the van with petrol (Elton is a hungry buggar). Ear popping is the best way to describe the journey, we went all the way up to the clouds, or so it seemed, and all the way back down again weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Into Nelson I had again picked us the cheaper camp option (really should have learnt form this by now) that was out of town. Nelson is an expensive place and the only two campsites near town were really expensive. We continued out a few kilometres to Mitai park camp to find no one at the camp office. It was a wooded area with some scabby looking campers already there (think they’d been there a while). Nath managed to find the owner who was “on break” and she said to find a pitch and come back and pay when they were open again at 3:30pm. It was damp and a bit cold so maybe that didn’t help, but we eventually found a spot that was level (ish). I went off to the toilets to check out the showers, as what with freedom camping again we were stinky. Now I’m not fussy about camp sites (I don’t think), we’ve been to a range of standards and I don’t mind the cheaper ones, however this one was the pits!! Some of the toilet blocks were boarded up, god knows when they were in use, the ones that were in use had barbed wire for windows and did not look very clean at all, and the cheek of it was you still had to pay a good couple of dollars to use the showers. Oh well never mind I’m sure it will be fine for the night. I left Nath to go and see what he thought and he agreed they weren’t great but they would be ok for one night. Then I looked at the trees we had parked between and shuddered. All over the trees were hundreds of yellow bugs, huge things with pincers!! On closer inspection it turned out to be many many shells of bugs that I guess had moved further up the trees but that was it, no way, we were gone………………..

In the end we headed to one of the biggest sites we‘ve ever been to, along the Tahuna beach only a short drive form town but a little extra (once you include paying for showers on top of the other place). Apparently they had plenty of space having 800 pitches!!! The lady behind the desk boasted they were the largest camp site in the southern hemisphere, to which Nath whipped out his willy and peed on her bonfire (metaphorically speaking) stating, “we’ll that’s not hard when your about the only place in it “. I asked about the sandflies, when she asked if we wanted a pitch near the beach or not and she must have thought I was stupid as she replied “well we are by a beach”, I wanted to slap her with my big swollen foot and point out that they don’t just hang around near beaches you know, but hey I think she was still in shock from Nath’s comment.

On the way in to Nelson we had seen signs for some kind of free “opera in the park”, and not that we are opera fans, but we are fans of free things, we asked at the desk what it was all about. Turned out even though it was free we still needed tickets, which we could only get from one shop back in town. So even though we really needed a shower and to clean our teeth (we’d been talking behind our hands most of the time) we drove back into town again only to find they had all sold out - oh well, maybe we could just listen from where we were, as we happened to be right next to the park it was being held in (or we would just watch through the fence, high five!).

So we eventually found a nice pitch opposite the estuary and set up camp and finally got to shower. Not only was this the largest camp site, it was the nicest so far, all new, huge and clean. Even the toilets had fake flowers in vases. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so we got all our washing done which was very handy and sat figuring out what we would do for the next day or so in Nelson. Annette and Chris had given us some pointers but it seemed so long ago now we couldn’t remember any of them, so I text Annette again in hope of some suggestions. Otherwise it was just a walk around. We had dinner quite early that evening as the opera started about 7.30pm, heading in about 8.30 in the hope that the guards on the gates wouldn’t be there any more and we could sneak in. but dam it, when we get there there were loads of people by the gate some with wrist bands some collecting money and too many just milling around for us to pass unnoticed (I was beginning to wish I’d brought my invisibility cloak with me). So we followed a group of people we’d seen earlier into a small clearing by the fence of the grounds (obviously had the same idea as us), and prepared to watch the opera through the mesh of wire. However a lady saw us there from the “light side” and said they were just letting people in for free, so we wandered over in the hope she was right and it turned out that as we were tourists (thinking the goofy British accent probably helped - “oh I’m terribly sorry we don’t have tickets”) we could go in for free - score!!

It was really nice atmosphere, and a lovely evening with the sky starting to light up pink and orange as the sun set. We were beginning to wish we’d brought some alcohol and a warm jumper with us but didn’t want to chance not being let back in again. It reminded me very much of a concert I used to go to back home with my parents and Beck at a place called Leeds castle (in Kent not Leeds) where the London philamonic would play all night and you would sit on the castle grounds with your picnic and wine and watch till it got dark (much more expensive back home). We recognised most songs I think but I was really hoping they’d play “time to say goodbye” the song we had heard at the fountains in Las Vegas but they didn’t (sigh). We had managed to pick the only spot in the whole park which was next to a load of kids who didn’t really care about being there and didn’t shut up the whole time! (Oh my god just read that back, am I actually moaning about kids not appreciating opera - crap I really am getting old!!).

We stayed pretty much till the end but it was very dark and cold by this time so we headed back to get some warmth. Once back on the camp site we saw fireworks going off form the field, but luckily had a better view of them from where we were than if we had stayed. The weird thing was though that they were practically silent, like someone was firing them with a silencer on??? Off to bed we then went ready for our next day of doing stuff in town…….

In the end we spent most of the next day doing internet stuff. As always the blog needed updating and we were lagging behind by weeks, so as we had paid for a whole days connection we abused it as much as possible uploading as many photos and videos as possible. We had seen on site that they also were able to burn DVDs, which we had planned to sort out that day too, so we could get them sent back to the UK. It was such a nice sunny day and there was something of a Sunday feeling about it, just chilling and getting stuff done. We hadn’t rally stopped much for a good couple of weeks so we didn’t really mind spending the day being productive. Around lunch time we were sat outside having lunch when some guy and his son, who were parked next to us, started chatting about touring and Asia and well everything Kiwi really. The guy was saying how New Zealand isn’t as clean and pure as it makes out, considering all the possum poison it puts down every year that filters into the waterways and all the pesticides on wineries etc. I must admit I hadn’t really thought about it and I too always pictured NZ as a place back in time without much pollution. I loved the way he referred to the DOC and the department of constipation; I’m guessing he doesn’t camp much at their sites. He said about a couple of trampers that recently t got sprayed by insecticide by a helicopter that went over the fields they were walking in, but the DOC were denying it - wow its like the doc-X -files!!! He talked a lot but eventually his young son beckoned him to get going, which I was quite glad of by the end as I was running out of things to say.

As the day by now had pretty much gone, and all the shops were gonna be closed, Nath and I went for a walk to the local beach. He had seen an advert for a local model steam train that went on Sundays and Nath wanted to go and have a look (bless) I honestly thought he meant he wanted to go on it, but turns out he wanted to look at the mechanics of it - yeah right. Whilst he was looking at the trains, I got a call from Annette, who was checking we were ok and reminded me of all the things they had suggested before. She had also suggested we meet up with Jenny (the ex hearing dog trainer) and her boyfriend (also Nathan) as they lived in the area and were lovely. So I then spent the next few hours texting back and forth with jenny about when and where to meet up (next morning at a pub near us). I suddenly realised she probably had no idea what I looked like so suggested I wore a rose or something, to which she replied, “don’t worry you’ll notice me first as I’ll be wearing a flashers Mac and dark glasses”, I could see I was gonna like this girl!!!

So for the rest of the afternoon we made our way across the beach and along the sea front until we got tired and headed back in the other direction. On the way back we stopped at a little café, which used to be some old boat house, for a coffee. We got made, however to sit outside like naughty children, coz it was valentines day and if we weren’t eating we basically weren’t allowed to take up space. The whole time we were there there was only one couple eating!! And to add to the insult the coffees came out only luke warm, which was good in one way as I hate waiting to be able to drink something, but as Nath pointed out they were so luke warm that you didn’t really have the choice of when to drink!! But as usual we didn’t say anything, just drank quickly and left…. On the way back we crossed the field where the opera had been, scanning the ground in hope of finding loose change that may have fallen out of someone’s pocket. Maybe even enough to extend our stay, but in the end I only found an Australian 50 cent piece (I know it’s scabby but hay, finder’s keepers and it all helps).

That night we did lots more internetting and tried to plan the next few days. We decided as the next part of our journey north was weather dependant that we would juts have to spend more time in Nelson to wait for the right time to go. Now we don’t mind too much as we have plenty of time but there is always an element of me that is panicking that we need to stay on target, but hey what’s the point moving on to somewhere that is a must do in good weather and moving on to keep time but never actually getting to do the thing you want as the weather is rubbish, so all in all we spent 3 nights in Nelson, which looking back I guess doesn’t seem that long really.
Anyway ……

Next morning we just about dragged ourselves out of bed in time to meet Jenny at 11am down the road. Luckily I did recognise her from meeting her briefly at Hearing Dogs UK a few years prior (weirdly my life seems to have followed jenny a few years behind as we have both worked at the PDSA in Cardiff, Hearing dogs UK and now Hearing Dogs NZ). It was a great few hours of us chatting endlessly about our experiences at Hearing Dogs (poor Nath just sat listening) and travelling round NZ in general. Jenny had started with a thick kiwi accent when we had met but after talking to us “cockneys” her accent soon mellowed down into a British twang. It was a shame her boyfriend Nathan wasn’t here (he is a pilot for Nz airways and was actually flying over us as we were chatting) as Nath wanted to chat with him about being a pilot (we’ve both had great dreams of things we’d like to do when we get home and Nath’s would be to learn to fly!!).

In the end we stayed into lunch time and enjoyed a great burger (for Nath) and bacon and eggs (for me) just as the sun was getting really hot. With most of the day now gone again we decided that as we had already been in Nelson 2 days, we really should head into the town to see what was going on. Nelson is a lovely little town, although I know it has the largest population of the whole south island, it was still only a town for us. We walked around the shops for a bit, nothing special there really, I found the ring makers that designed and produced all the rings for the lord of the rings films. I thought their collection was gonna be fabulous but turns out their “one ring” was about the only thing I liked, everything else was large and ugly - probably a good thing for my purse though!!. We then went to see the Nelson Cathedral which was a cute tiny version of many form back home, with a modern 50’s twist in part of it (I wont go into why) taking time to read the “prayers” that were left on the public board, most were the usual but some were a little more interesting “please let me have a Nintendo wii god, andy aged 7” I think that was the best one.

As it was getting close to closing time for the shops, Nath and I made one last purchase before heading home - a waterproof camera. Now I wish we had bought one before we cam out, a proper digital one, but in the end we went with a fairly descent film based camera - wow how old is that, I’m not sure I know where to go to develop them anymore (Boots I guess?). What was great about this shop was not that it was value for money but the guy behind the till was so friendly. We got chatting about travelling and how he’d travelled when he was younger and again recently, thus he was now working in a camera shop to save up and go again. He was so nice and offered us his sofa or a tour and beer round town if we ever passed by this way again. Although we knew we probably wouldn’t we took his email anyway even if just to thank him later for his kindness.

We returned back to the campsite (Nath with shorter hair after a quick stop at the hairdressers - I really should get mine done soon, 8 months is a long time to wait between cuts). We had decided given the weather forecast for Abel Tasman, and how important is was to get there when it was nice, that we would move on the next day after a few hours in town to burn some DVD’s. So next morning up and out and parked up ready we sat down in a very popular internet café and burnt away. We stayed so long in the end I had to go and make lunch for us (falling over in the door way into the street of passers by as I went) so that Nath had the energy to continue burning into the afternoon. We went from there straight to the post office to send everything off straight away (as we’re running out of space on the computer) and also decided that as we had purchased a little box we would send my Paua shells that I’d collected form kaikoura back to the UK. We filled in the form and declared there was no contraband (whoops) and headed to the counter. The lady asked us, after reading the label of contents if the Paua shells were from a gift shop or just from a beach. I literally went to open my mouth and felt a huge pain on my foot as Nath stamped on it and interrupted, “yes yes from a gift shop” - lets just hope the get through otherwise the DVDs with all the photos may get stopped as well!!

On the way out of town we stopped off at the one place I thought sounded interesting, the museum of wearable art and classic cars- weird combination I know, but it meant that Nath and I had our own separate wings to view without the other getting bored. Sorry yes, I know wearable art you heard me right the first time, huge dresses and head pieces and shoes etc all made from normal household items. It has to seen to be believed really, I’m not doing it justice and unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos of the “art pieces” I guess in case you decided you wanted to make your own dress out of old teabags - who wouldn’t!! The classic car bit was as expected lots of nice shiny cars so Nath was happy, no Morris Minors for me, but anyway the time was getting on and we really needed to get as far north as possible before it got dark, so it was bye bye Nelson and we were off to the Golden Bay……

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Photos

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Planning our next move

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Opera in the park

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Ooops we fell over

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Lovely sunset over the opera

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Lunch time stop - yum yum

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Its an eclipse

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Nath finaly shows signs of missing his sister Eira. (9.6 seconds later it was over)

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Expensive cold coffee (blowing on it to warm it up!!!)

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Tahuna beach - did look better in the sun

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Scabby hunting for money after the opera

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Valentines dinner - lucky girl

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Nelson cathedral