Weekend in Nelson

The weekend just gone was spent in Nelson at the top of the South island. Nelson is the offical holder of the most amount of sunlight hours per year anywhere in New Zealand. To get there Wendy flew over but as we wanted a car for the weekend I decided to take the Interislander ferry.




The ferry takes a little over 3 hours to cross the 92Km that seperates North from South also known as the Cook Straight. The ferry berths at Picton, and so its a further 1 1/2 hours drive around the Marlborough Sound to Nelson. The distance from Picton to Nelson isn't that great but the roads are tight and twisty and you have to cross a few mountains.



I finished work on Friday night at 5pm and got home with a couple of hours to spare before I had to get the ferry. You can see where it docks from our house so no need to rush, just sit back, relax watch some telly and then get going 15minutes before check in. I made something to eat and then went to reverse the car up the drive to pack it. I got in turned the key and nothing. The battery was flat. As we live on a hill, I didn't think it was a problem until I remembered that the car we own is an automatic.

A quick call to our landlord (who else could I call?) and they agread to help and luckily they had some jumper cables but it was going to be a close run thing to get to the ferry on time.

Thankfully everything went well and as soon as the jumper cables were on, the car fired up straight away. I got to the ferry terminal, checked in and left the car running for the next hour as I was to scared to turn it off. I got on the ferry and the wharfies (NZ speak for dock workers) guided my car through the ferry right up to the load doors, I was in pole position. Good for getting away in front of the lorries, bad if the car refused to start again.


As it was a night crossing I didn't get any photos of the approach to Picton thought the Marlborough Sounds but I did get this snap of the sun going down over the South Island as we approached it.


I arrived at Picton at just gone 11:00pm and the good news was the car started. First off the ferry with no one to follow was interesting but I found my way out of the ferry port, onto the correct road and everything was going smoothly until I noticed the fuel guage. I had 1/4 tank left, the car does 440ish Km to the tank full and Nelson was about 120Km away. I decided to fill up at the next garage as better to be safe than sorry. The one problem with that is everywhere in Picton's shut at 11:00 on a Friday night. Nothing for it but to carry on to the next town...........that'll be Nelson then! A couple of small towns came and went, all with fuel stations but alas no lights on. With about 45Km to go the fuel light came on. This was getting serious. No cell phone coverage (I was in the mountains) no fuel and way out in the wop-wops (NZ speak for countryside) so no idea where I was. Luckily the road out of the mountains is down hill so at every opportunity I knocked the car into neutral and rolled.

Good fortune or just plain luck saw me through and I arrived at the motel at about 1am. Time to relax and have a beer. Lesson learnt: NEVER set off anywhere in NZ at night without a full tank of gas.

Saturday morning Wendy and I got up and went and filled up the car with 55 litres of fuel, the guy in the garage commented he'd never seen a Subaru take so much........

We then went into Nelson town centre. The town is very small but there was a Christmas market in the main square called Trafalgar Square so lots of people from the surrounding area had come to spend. Whilst in the town we also went to see Jens Hansens jewellers. These guys made the original Lord of the Rings ring and I was told by a friend (Cheers Dave) that they had a huge one under the counter so to speak. Well it was literally under the counter and it is huge.

I didnt want to know how much it would cost if I dropped it!

In the early afternoon Wendy and I left Nelson heading north west and after an hour we stopped at Kaiteriteri. This small vilage is on the edge of the Able Tasman National Park and is truely stunning. The entire bay is golden sands with rocks at either end and is divided up into areas. The boat ramp is to the west end with powerboats having a dedicated waterski and fast run area. The other watercraft include peddal boats, sail boats and canoes and can be hired.

Swimmers and divers are allowed either side of the bay and its just perfect for a spot of snorkling, well it was 26C and we brought the damn things with us all the way from the UK!!

Being hardy Brits we hadn't thought the water would be that cold but we were wrong. After about 20 minutes we'd had enough and decided to leave the water and warm up on the beach. A couple of Kiwis were snorkling with us in full wetsuits and they commented that we must be mad. Well we were out in the midday sun!

After drying off and warming up we walked to the other end of the beach for some lunch at a restaurant. On the way we saw a 2 guys having difficulty rigging a laser and so I stopped to offer a hand. They said they thought they would be OK but 1 had never sailed before and just bought the boat, and the other one (presumably father) hadn't sailed in over 30 years. Wendy suggested a couple of things they had overlooked and they were very greatful for the help. Whilst we eat lunch we watched them sailing around the bay, and Wendy did comment she really missed her boat.

The view from the restaurant was great, looking back along the coast toward Nelson in the distance. Again the lack of people and ample free parking was a real shock.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving and exploring the Able Tasman National Park.



We made it back to the motel and I booked a table for us in the restaurant over the road right on the river bank. Wendy had Duck and I decided to have some locally caught snapper and it was lovely. Its a reasonably common fish in NZ but a real tasty one as well so I'd been told.


I'll post about Sunday later as I'm shattered now so off to bed :)