Friday, November 15th and Saturday, November 16th - Days 67 and 68 - Returning to Nelson
Friday morning was a stormy one on Cape Foulwind. We woke to rain and gusty winds. We got the place cleaned up and finished packing and loading the car - returning the bikes to Jude's garage (she had to be in Nelson Thursday and Friday). We were on the road by 9:30am - driving up State Highway 6 along the Buller River gorge towards Nelson. The river is miles long with almost no signs of life for miles. It was mostly cloudy with rain early, but we eventually drove out of the latter.
We were happy to stop for coffee in Berlins, a "village" with a few houses and a curious backpackers hostel/bar/cafe featuring a sculpture of a giant insect with a knife and fork. It was interesting to discover that the area was active during the gold rush and again when radioactive minerals (ie uranium) were found. Little is in evidence now of the old town and mining operation.
We got back on the road to Nelson and decided to take a slight detour to the oldest pub in New Zealand, The Moutere Inn, just to the west of the city. It was about 1/2 an hour out of our way, but worth it! And the drive-in, through back roads that were less heavily trafficked, was also nice. Great fish and chips.
Then is was about half an hour to get to Nelson and we drove right to our hotel, The Chelsea Park Lodge, on Rutherford Street in downtown Nelson. Quite a difference from our accommodations when we last visited Nelson in 2006 - we were at the magnificent "The Lookout" on the Harris Hill farm high above Nelson. But it is adequate - perhaps even better since we have a one-bedroom apartment, so have a bit more space and versatility than a regular hotel room. This was a good thing as Deb went straight to bed upon arrival and slept more or less for the next 14 hours or so!
Needless to say, it was a quiet night. While Deb slept, Munroe enjoyed a nice bold Barossa cab and learned the basics of cricket watching England vs. the West Indies (the "Windies" - Cecil Foster's favorite team). It actually turned out to be quite interesting - though the scoring that showed under the game remains, for the most part, a mystery.
The last 'super moon' of the year over Nelson
There is an excellent - and famous - market in Nelson on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so after breakfast in our room we headed out to explore what was on offer. It turned out to be quite a lot! The place was bustling with an astonishing variety of food, craft, veggie, clothing, and gourmet food shops (to mention only a selection!), We picked up some delicious local peanut butter and some crunchy cheese (dehydrated) from a lovely Scottish woman who had come to Nelson in 1959 (but whose accent was intact!).
Somehow, we resisted the newly dug potatoes, amazing veggies, jewelry, etc., and made it back to our hotel for lunch. As we approached our hotel we witnessed the annual "Santa Ride" - an event in which motorcyclists collect toys to distribute to needy children at Christmas. It was a lot of fun to see the decorated bikes (and riders) go by! After lunch, Deb had to do a bit of work on the story for Miss Lightbourn's School which was based on her interview from earlier in the week.
During our trip planning, in April we had been in touch with Rachel Harris, the daughter of the woman (Sue Harris) who we rented "The Outlook" from in 2006, and were disappointed to learn that they had gone to long-term rentals for our place and the two other cottages that they had rented out. Sadly, we leaned then that Sue had died of cancer - a tragic end to the life of a resilient, funny, and engaging woman. Outside of our correspondence with her, we had only met once, when we hand-delivered our remaining rent as our week in the cottage ended. We had walked further up the hill and met briefly with Sue - she asked if we wanted goat stew for dinner after we told her of our having to chase the little goat out of our compound earlier. She said he'd chewed through the telephone line, among other things - and se had had enough!
Knowing that the property now was being used as an event and wedding center, we checked their calendar and were disappointed (but not surprised) to find that they had a wedding booked this weekend. So in the afternoon, we drove to the foot of the long drive up the hill on the outskirts of Nelson. We took a picture looking up the hill but we couldn't see the buildings on the property from where we were. So on the way back, we enjoyed stopping at a little park that was a piece of original coastal growth.
After leaving the foot of the drive to "the Outlook" (or "The Summer House", as the venue is known now), we took a brief hike along the coast, and then headed to downtown Nelson to have a (bad!) coffee and look around a bit. En route, we saw a cricket team practicing on a local green.