Sunday, November 17th - Day 69 - From Nelson to Picton
Today was gorgeous weather-wise. After getting up, showering, and eating breakfast, we packed and cleaned up the apartment at Chelsea Park Lodge. Munroe had the France/NZ All Blacks rugby match on (from Paris) - rugby is clearly the dominant sport in New Zealand and each game starts with a dramatic Maori "haka" by the All Blacks. We were to learn later in the morning that New Zealand lost by 1 point so there'll be many disappointed folks down here - including Dean, the hotel manager who was catching bits and pieces of the game as he prepared rooms for cleaning. After we'd left, he was good enough to call and let us know that we'd left behind an electric adapter - the one Munroe was using for the laptop. Fortunately, we'd only gone a couple hundred yards down the street - stopping at the place where the market was yesterday (Montgomery Square) for the Sunday market ("Monty's Market"). This one was far less busy than yesterday's - and it was essentially a flea market rather than a general-purpose one. So we weren't there long - Munroe got a used book for $3 NZ - a debut crime novel by a Scotsman set in the Highlands called Pines.
Our next stop was a coffee break at the grand historic Melrose House, a gorgeous and lovingly restored home built in the 1880s with a fabulous gardenand now owned by the City of Nelson. Some of the huge trees - from other areas of the world - had been planted soon after the house was built. After coffee and a ginger slice on the verandah, Deb took a self-guided tour of the beautiful home. It was interesting to learn about the family who built the house and lived there for many years. Plus the collection of tea cups was astounding - maybe a thousand or so displayed in the downstairs old dining room and parlours.
From there we drove to the Christ's Church Cathedral, located just below Melrose House, and looked around there and its lovely grounds a bit. Historic plaques described the founding of the city. The first settlers established dwellings on a high hill up from the harbor, where the Cathedral now stands. The modernistic church was built in the 1920s on the site of several other original churches dating from the founding of the city. The Cathedral gardens were lovely with ancient "specimen" trees and fascinating plantings. Bushes with bell-shaped flowers caught our eye.
View from Cathedral looking down
Then we took a quick tour of downtown Nelson and then decided, since it was after 12 noon, to set off.
On the way out of town, we decided to go up the steep hill and take a couple pictures of The Lookout if we could. We'd emailed Rachel Harris, the owner and operator of "The Summer House" on the Harris Hill farm where we'd stayed on our honeymoon in 2006, but with a wedding being hosted there this weekend, we weren't really expecting a reply. The website indicated that weddings had the use of the property from noon Friday through noon on Sunday, so we felt that we wouldn't be disrupting anything by just going up and taking a couple pictures. We were rewarded with a quiet drive up the private road and had a nice view of The Lookout from below.
Note: When we drove up the long road up the hill in 2006, it was dark and raining. Deb had to get out at least 3 times to open and close gates to keep the livestock in.
Green mussels at the Slip Inn, Havelock
Our 'home' for the next couple of days is on top of a hill overlooking the harbour at Picton. You can see the interisland ferry from our living room and the small porch. It is a nice, bright apartment - but not as clean as we'd like, and there are some pretty noisy Germans overhead and that is annoying. But I think we'll be ok as things settle down. It is such a nice day that everyone is outside.
