What an exciting weekend we had! Kelly and I ended up with quite the adventure from just a small idea of a weekend holiday. With much eager anticipation, we flew out of Wellington Airport Friday morning to head down to the south island town of Nelson. Another adventure on a little prop plane... but much less scary than the first time.
Air New Zealand is just totally the best to fly with. We were a bit late to check-ins but they still let us on the plane. It was crazy, since it was a domestic flight, we didn't even have to go through security. I checked my big backpack because I brought a large bottle of sunscreen and didn't want to have to throw it away, but it turned out I didn't even need to worry about it. We just walked straight down the terminal and onto the plane (so strange).
Got a nice view of the Marlborough sounds out the window, it was a bit hazy in the morning but it quickly cleared up once we landed in Nelson.
After picking up our rental car, and going through quite the safety briefing since I was listed as a licensed driver (and terrified at that of driving on the opposite side of the road) we headed straight to the beach. It was still early in the morning, about 9am, so there were few people on the beach. It was absolutely stunning, white sandy beach fading into the calm ocean with mountains in the backdrop. The sun came out while we were there too so it got pretty warm. We talked about how wonderful it would be to live here and see this everyday.
We wasted no time being ridiculous, the tri-pod for my camera came in quite handy the whole weekend (thanks mom!)
This was an excellent time to test out my water shoes I picked up in New York this summer, until I realized "Wait, I'm on a beach, why am I wearing shoes at all?" Kelly had just painted her toes too so we thought it apropro to photograph.
After the beach we headed back into town to visit the World of Wearable Art museum. No photos allowed there, but here is their website if you're curious - http://www.worldofwearableart.com/
The costumes were absolutely amazing, I cant believe the materials some people used, everything from trash cans to milk jugs, sheet metal, paints, fabric, fiberglass, old clocks, mirrors, you name it and it has probably been used in WoW. We got to sit through one of the re-runs of the shows to see the costumes performed, which was very interesting as well. It reminds me of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, or like cirque du soleil, very cool. I've decided when I have copious amounts of free time I'm totally building something and entering it.
There was also a local art gallery in the museum as well as a classic car galley. Kelly really liked the old Caddys, I liked the crazy displays they had for some of them, such as this one.
After the museum, we drove out of Nelson and through Richmond heading towards Upper Moutere and all the wineries in the area. We stopped at this logging area that overlooks Nelson to take some more photos and chase the southern alps a bit more :)
Sometimes the camera + tripod combo was a bit off, still a cool background though.
We stopped for lunch at the Moutere Inn, New Zealand's oldest pub, and they had the documentation to prove it, so that was pretty cool. Just happened to pass it on the road, sometimes the places you find like that are the best. It was so gorgeous that we ate outside and tried some of the local beer. This area is known for its hop farms, the bartender said something like that's what 70% of the farmers in the area are growing, so it makes for a lot of good beer.
I had a toastie to eat (chicken, cranberry, and brie - YUM) and Kelly ate a meat pie. And this is considered bar food? just crazy, it was delicious.
After lunch we were planning to keep driving up to Motueka, but on recommendation from several of the locals, headed to Mapua instead. We walked around the tiny town and in all the old people art shops and garden stores then headed to the shoreline and got ice cream.
By this time it was late afternoon and probably a good idea for us to get started on our drive to Picton where we'd be staying the night. Kelly also thought it would be a good idea for me to try driving (that lasted about ten minutes) A combination of her terrified of me going off the road into a ditch and me making turns into the wrong side of the lane.... We decided it was better if I just drove at night when other people we not around ;)
It was quite nerve racking because every time I wanted to use the turn signal I would flick the windshield wipers, and changing from drive to reverse with your left hand is just very very foreign. I did better on the Queen Charlotte Road after we were on it for a bit.
We watched the rain clouds come in over Nelson all day and finally started to drive through them now, but didn't hit any rain until we got to Picton. That was good, we were able to hop out a couple times to take photos just before it got too dark. (We think) I also lost my sunglasses somewhere about this time. I'll have to search for another 5-dollar pair around here...
We got into Picton just after dark and stopped at Le Cafe for dinner just before heading to the family's house we'd be staying at. By 10pm, we were both so exhausted that we just went to bed. It was an excellent first day to our adventure though.
mmmmm scallops!
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