Nelson, New Zealand (2020-02-04)

We rounded off last Tuesday with an evening visit to Isel Park in nearby Stoke, looking for somewhere shady to walk.  The park was originally the estate of the Marsden family, another of the area's early settlers.  It was a great place for shade, but also some really nice gardens.

Isel House

On Wednesday we took a road trip to Pelorus Bridge, which is about 45 minutes east of Nelson.  The slow-moving river is a popular place for swimming, with several large pools near to the bridge, but the area is also home to several short bush walks, and a stepping-off point for other longer walks.  The river in this area featured in the Lord of the Rings movie, as the place where the Hobbits floated down a river in barrels.  We did several of the short walks, before stopping for lunch at the nearby café - a DOC (Dept. of Conservation) guy had told Marlene that they make the best steak and cheese pies, and I can attest that they were very tasty.

Tree Fern

Bridge over a tributary to the Pelorus River

On the trip home I saw the sign below, in a field in the middle of nowhere, advertising a livestock psychologist.  We had much discussion (and laughs) about what exactly a livestock psychologist might do, and imagined him trying to change the behaviour of the animals.  It turns out that this is exactly what they do - they teach farmers how to read their animals and change any behaviour that they feel is unbecoming to a fine young cow or sheep.  Who would have thought that such job opportunities even existed.

Ad for a Livestock Psychologist

That evening, as we were walking the waterfront path, next to highway 6, I saw that every parking space in a roadside pull-off area was occupied by camper vans of one type or another - freedom campers.  In many areas in New Zealand, overnight camping is allowed in designated areas, but generally the vehicles are expected to be self-sufficient for water and waste.  Of course many people who don't have self-contained units camp in these areas, and you can imagine the amount of waste (human and otherwise) that accumulates by the end of the summer.  Businesses support the idea of freedom camping as it means more potential customers for them, but the everyday kiwi is not as impressed.  I saw one camper with a sign that read "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I drive by again?" Cute!

Freedom Campers

Rabbit Island was our destination on Thursday, but we did not stay too long as the heat was intense, the breeze sadly lacking, and not a lot of shade.  We did see several wekas walking the parking lots looking for scraps of food, or anything else that they could appropriate.  Wekas are an endemic flightless bird, about the size of a chicken, not to be confused with a kiwi.  Kiwis are nocturnal and wekas prefer the daylight, so you are not likely to get them confused.

Weka foraging for food

Beach on Rabbit Island

We have not experienced any more earthquakes since our first night, but on Rabbit Island there were many signs reminding you of when there might be a tsunami - if the earthquake is strong, or lasts a long time, then head to higher ground.

Tsunami Warning Sign

On the hottest days, we have avoided long walks during the middle of the day, but have enjoyed long walks in the cool of the evening on Tahunanui Beach, a long stretch of sandy beach between Nelson and Richmond.  Here we can walk for several kilometres, dipping our feet in the water as necessary to stay cool - a popular spot this past week.

Tahunanui Beach

Yesterday was a public holiday in the Nelson area, but nowhere else in New Zealand.  Everybody was off work to celebrate the Nelson Province Anniversary Day.  New Zealand was divided into two provinces in 1846, six provinces in 1853 (including Nelson), which over the years grew to twelve provinces, but in 1961, the provinces (which had no governing power after 1876) were replaced by statistical areas, and in 1974 by local government regions.  In summary, anniversary day is just a paid holiday, to celebrate something which has been extinct since 1876.

We took the opportunity to go to the movies as a lot of other places were closed.  Our (my) movie choice was "1917", which we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to others.  It collected a bunch of awards at the BAFTAs this week, so it seems that it is not just our opinion.

After the movie we planned to pick up burgers to eat at the beach, but our favourite take-out place was closed for the public holiday.  Ditto for our favourite Thai restaurent.  In desperation we went to an acclaimed burger place in Tahunanui, and we did thoroughly enjoy the burgers, but were less impressed with their cash register skills - paid the $44 bill with a $50 note and received $4 change (which I caught and they corrected), but in studying the receipt later, found they had charged us for a tin of ketchup ($2.50) rather than the single serving that we received ($0.50), and our request for a half scoop of chips was processed as a full scoop (which we received).  We wrote it off as a public holiday surcharge, and enjoyed our picnic at the beach.  The sea gulls likely rescued the extra chips from the garbage can in which the well-wrapped scraps were placed.

Today, the heat has finally dropped, so must get out and enjoy the day.