Richmond Day 6 - South Street, Christ Church Cathedral and the Nelson Provincial Museum

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas …

This morning Tracey helped Robin and Sandra decorate their Christmas tree and was given the honour of placing the star on top. It was also deemed appropriate that an Australian should put the Christmas kangaroo and the Christmas emu on the tree!

After lunch we drove into Nelson to take a look at historic South Street. Originally settled in the 1860s, South Street is the oldest fully preserved street in New Zealand that people actually live in. The street features cobblestone paths, quaint Victorian cottages, lantern-style streetlights, planter boxes and white picket fences. It was certainly very picturesque.

Our next stop was Christ Church Cathedral, an Anglican cathedral located on Trafalgar Square in Nelson. There has been a church on this site since 1887, but construction of the current cathedral took place between 1925 and 1965. The cathedral features a 35-metre tall bell tower and a pipe organ with 2,500 pipes. While the cathedral is built from Tākaka marble, the concrete bell tower was added at the end of construction in 1965.

The cathedral is currently hosting its annual Christmas Tree Festival. There are 70 lit and decorated Christmas trees on display. It is astonishing that with a single brief – make and decorate a Christmas tree – the community groups, schools and businesses around Nelson can create so many different Christmas trees.

Having entered the cathedral from the south end we ventured around to the northern side where we discovered an impressive succulent garden. We made our way down the Cawthron Steps to view Nelson’s 11-metre tall city Christmas Tree. The impressive steps that lead up to the cathedral on Church Hill (Piki Mai in Māori, meaning ‘climb hither’) were financed by Thomas Cawthron and built between 1912 and 1913 using granite from a quarry in Tonga Bay. The city Christmas tree is made from aluminium and recycled plastic but, this year, boasts a new star on its top. The tree was erected on the 27^th of November by a dedicated team of 15 volunteers who worked in the rain for six hours!

Our next stop was at the Nelson Provincial Museum which houses a collection of social and natural history items (Māori ‘taonga’ meaning objects/resources that are highly prized). After this it was definitely time for ice cream. Today we purchased our ice creams from the Penguino Ice Cream Café. I chose the coffee and turmeric ice cream … because that had to be healthy, right?!!

After roast chicken dinner we played two games of Bolivia. OMG, after trailing in the Bolivia Challenge since the second night Australia won two games on the trot tonight to level the series!!! That is going to make for a very exciting final night of play tomorrow night. Who will with the Bolivia Ashes?



Steps for the day: 8,687 (5.96km)

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Photos

Coffee & Turmeric Ice-cream
That must be healthy, right??