Nelson 2016

What's covered?

Nelson was on the itinerary as a place to spend a few days before nearby Picton for the crossing to North Island. As explained in other pages, we were booked in for an extra night.

18 November

We had sunshine all the way on this journey via Reefton and Murchison. There had been reports of very heavy traffic because of diversions following the earthquake but it seemed light to us.

We stopped for a coffee where someone had parked badly while waiting to pick up someone from a bus that was due and after some reluctance to move, he was given the customary polite Australian version of "move it" (quite a few Fs in it as I recall). We then continued stopping for lunch at Kohatu (Flat Rock Cafe).

The whole journey was a lovely drive and followed the route of the TransAlpine Railway in parts.

After checking in at Cambria House, we drove into town and looked in Kathmandu and MacPac where Gill bought a fleece reduced from $150 to $48!

Dinner was at Ford's where we both had the John Dory special. Gill had deconstructed cheesecake, four separate "spoonfuls" of the cream, some biscuit crumbs and a coulis, delicious.

Cambria House was classic Australian design and the rooms we saw all had old fashioned stained wooden doors and furniture. The bathroom was modern and the bed was comfortable. The bit we didn't like was the curtains that let almost all the light through so the room was bright as soon as day broke, very early in the morning. Breakfast was on a shared table and we met a number of very nice couples, including Steven and Gill from Onslow Village, just the other side of Guildford where we live.

19 November

We walked into town for the market and bought a number of presents before stopping for coffee.

We then drove out to Upper Moutere and ambled around the area. We stopped by the roadside for a snack lunch where a couple of girls were getting the motor bike scramblers back onto their yute (pickup truck). Opposite we saw the Old Coach Road and several cars and cyclists had turned into so we decide to explore. It was a very scenic route and eventually saw a sign for Riverside Cafe. The sign was nothing special and it didn't look much from the road so we didn't expect too much. We only wanted a coffee and a toilet so turned into the entrance to get quite a surprise as it had a lovely garden area and inside it was nicely done out with several areas to sit in. There was also a cactus area under cover.

After that we drove on to Rabbit Island where we sat looking at the narrow beach and read our Kindles.

Dinner was at The Steakhouse where we had a nice steak but it was noisy, partly because of the design and partly as there was a large private party going on. They were having fun so no complaint but it didn't make it good for us.

20 November

We decided to defer the Tasman National Park until tomorrow as we thought it would be busy with local people as well being Sunday, which Karel at Cambria House confirmed would likely be the case. Instead we headed off for Lake Rotaita in the Nelson Lakes National Park. It was a typically lovely drive and we went for a short walk along the lakeside. We had lunch at Clinkers in St Arnaud before returning to Nelson where we had a look around the cathedral.

In the evening we went back to Ford's where we had another nice meal but the same specials on the board! Specials should change each day in my book.

21 November

We drove out to Kaiteriteri for a three hour coastal cruise along the edge of the Tasman National Park. We went with Wilsons as Graham and Grace had recommended them as their boats have more space on top.

Along the way there was some drama when the crew spotted a kayaker in trouble. He had piled what seemed to be all his worldy goods into two bin liners on top of his kayak and, not surprisingly, he could not right it after it overturned. The crews' priority was rescuing him but he seemed more concerned about his possessions. The crew and a nearby water taxi managed to retrieve most things but he was still shouting about his GoPro. A few of us could see where we thought it was and pointed to it after which the water taxi retrieved it.

After that we returned and packed ready for tomorrows early start.

The only thing left to do was have dinner at the Cod and Lobster and the meal was excellent.

Alarm set for 05.50!