Nelson and ships in bottles

16/11/12
Currently the plan is to leave for Murchison tomorrow, spend the night there, and then go to Hanmer Springs for a night and then to our daughter's for Monday night .  After that we may just drive straight home.  Celia didn't sleep well last night as the mozzies that bit her in Picton had left their mark and she was very itchy.  I didn't think I'd been bitten but I noticed, about half an hour ago, that I had three bites. Yet none of those were itchy at all.  I slept pretty well, even though I went to bed about 9.30 and in spite of Celia tossing and turning and going to the loo and reading the iPad under the blanket.

Took us a while to get off the ground this morning because we needed to get the tent tidied up after it was bundled in the car yesterday and the car itself needed some sorting out - something that happens every few days.  We then went grocery shopping as we were running out of some essentials, and then went onto the Founders Park which isn't far from here,  Celia had wanted to go to Högland's glass factory - in fact it had been one of the things she was coming for and then we discovered it was closed for major repairs.  She was quite disappointed, I think. We'd been there last time we were in Nelson, and really enjoyed it.

However Founders Park was well worth a visit.  Celia's convinced it's where the wedding reception was held for a wedding we came up to Nelson for about fourteen years ago, and she could be right, though I don't really remember it at all. The reception would have been the big building called the Granary [picture above], but again it didn't look particularly familiar.  The Park has some lovely old buildings in it, and early in the piece we got into a fun conversation with the people in the bakery shop: the guy is from the States, the woman from Hounslow, and the younger bloke just got on with baking, throwing a laugh or a word in occasionally.  The Cooper who works in the Park was there at the time with another older guy and they'd obviously already been having a bit of a laugh together.  Made the visit start off well.  There weren't many other people working today, but it's possibly too early in the tourist season.

We really enjoyed the Park.  The buildings are lovely, and well preserved, and there are surprises around every corner.  Some of the collections are still in the process of being cleaned up, but there are others that have had a lot of work put into them.  One of these was the vast array of ships in bottles - it's claimed to be the biggest collection of these in the Southern hemisphere.  Some of them are outstanding,  such as the enormous bottle that has fourteen separate sailing ships inside it [see photo] or the ship inside a light bulb.  There are also fascinating crib boards made in the shape of ships, and some enormously detailed sailing ships (not in bottles).

It's another very hot day, alleviated at least by a bit of a breeze.  We're not sure we could live here in the high summer.  Both of us were worn out by all the walking round the park, me because it was all strolling, and I don't find strolling does me much good.  I'm better if I'm striding out and getting my legs moving.  I get very stiff otherwise.  Celia's ankles are swollen so she's uncomfortable from that too.  A huge bunch of school kids arrived at the Tahuna camp in the evening and took over the cabins opposite us.  Thankfully they're not staying on our side, especially the one who screams every few minutes.

Nelson, tents and beach

15/11/12
Absolutely hot day and consequently quite exhausting in the car.  We said goodbye to the noisy trucks and cars going over the bridge and have had them replaced here in Nelson by an aeroplane leaving the airport every half hour or so.  Surprisingly it's not as noisy as it was in Blenheim.

Picton: Sounds and boats.  Difficult to capture the
beauty of this harbour on film. 

The trip to Picton was fine and easy and took less than half an hour.  We wandered around for a while checking it out, enjoying the water and the boats - the Interislander in her berth - and the sunshine.  Found a secondhand shop that also sold antiques and it had a huge range of stuff from all sorts of vintages.  Bought a potato masher for a dollar, since we discovered last night that along with the lack of potatoes we didn't have a masher either.  Tempted by some other things, including the bus outside the building that was offered as a trade-in - it was fitted out as a campervan - but managed to control ourselves.  Also found a secondhand bookshop, a very good done, and finished up buying an Ian Rankin that I don't think I've read: Exit Music.  I think it was supposed to be the last Rebus book, but the most recent book by Rankin brings Rebus out of retirement, and also includes the characters from the two Complaints books, who, curiously, come across as different characters in this new book - it's like they're seen as different because we're seeing them through Rebus' eyes.  Consequently we get very little insight into Malcolm Fox in this new book.  I had a bit of a discussion with the proprietor of the bookshop about the way paper books are being taken over by electronic versions; naturally he wasn't very impressed by the latter and thought a monopoly would eventuate and cut lots of people out.  However I think it's a transition time, like it or not, and we'll have to live with it somehow. Books as such don't seem to be going out of fashion as yet.  There was a good secondhand bookshop n Blenheim as well as a very good new books bookshop, staffed by at least five people.

We checked at the info place about just how hilly and winding the Queen Charlotte road was and, on the basis of what they said, decided it was too hilly.  Just as well, as the road from Havelock to Nelson was not at all pleasant to drive on.  Up to Havelock it was fine, running along through a lovely valley (the Rai Valley, I think?) but a few miles after Havelock it climbed up into the mountains.  That wasn't too much of a problem - it was the endless trip downhill again that nearly drove us crazy with its constant twists and turns, and with trying to keep the car from going too fast.  With all the weight on board I don't much trust the brakes to hold us if we have a problem.  When we were coming back from Christchurch after our last trip there, and Celia was driving, the car was doing an awful shuddering thing as we came down the Kilmog, which made Celia very nervous (not to mention me!)

We stopped off in Havelock for lunch near the water, and were joined by a very fluffy cat who just sat beside us without demanding anything, in spite of the fact that we were eating sardines (not on toast, but on pita bread - we'd run out of ordinary bread).

Tahuna Beach, Tahunanui.  You can just see some of the
dozen or so surf kites people were practicing with.

Anyway after our long trip down the neverending hill, we got to Nelson - and began to breath normally again.  We'd decided to stay at the Tahuna Beach motor camp, which turns out to be 54 acres of campervans, tents, cabins, motels and whatever, all within spitting distance of the sea.  It's a good place but when we tried to get the tent up, the wind just wouldn't let us.  We decided to try a different tent site since we were told it didn't matter which site we used but while that was a little less windy, we still had enormous trouble getting the tent to sit properly. The front kept blowing inwards and in general not looking right.  The rest was okay, but the area round the door bent inwards.  Turned out that one of the rods had split badly, so it's not surprising that it wouldn't take the strain.  Celia had already repaired another one on site and we'd got that in place - she'd repaired several split ones before left home - bit in the end the tent was just plain wonky and was going to get wonkier.  We capitulated and hired a cabin instead, which meant taking the tent down again.  At least that was a much quicker job than the two attempts we'd made to get it up!   The cabin is a standard one but in fact is better than the so-called de luxe one we had in Kaikoura.  It doesn't have a sink, which was an advantage at the other place, but it has a fridge and a telly.  It would sleep four if necessary, so we have a choice of beds.

Celia's happy to start heading home after we've been here for a couple of nights.  She's over tenting for the time being, and in fact, given the relative price of the cabins, it's not worth all the hefting and heaving and shoving and back-breaking that the tent takes to get up, just to save a few dollars.  She'd had plans about going into more remote camp sites, like the DOC ones, but that idea went west after we'd been at Waitaki Waters, and had spent some time at Marfells Beach.  I think she's realised that we're getting a bit past all the hassles of camping, although she enjoys cooking on her gas stove - making pikelets on it near Glentunnel and cooking eggs on the side of the road near Makikihi were both highlights.

Now we have to figure out how to get home without too many mountain roads like the one we went on today.  Looks like we can avoid going back to Blenheim, by going down through the middle of the island but I think that road is a winding as well.  Anyway, we'll see how it goes.  We can stop between here and Christchurch and again between Christchurch and Dunedin if we want.   That'll take us through the weekend and into next  week and that'll be enough.   We'll probably stop overnight with my daughter and her family on the way back as well.