Fooferfish

Well this year we decided to take a look at Nelson and the surrounding areas , and as the In-laws were here , we thought they would like to come and see the sunny area and more of NZ .

We left Dunedin and headed for a stop over in Kaikoura , which we made by late afternoon, sod that drive through Ashburton and onto CHCH, what a boring road , got to Kaikoura and stopped at Brookhouse for one night, we got to the guest house and entered the lobby and there were keys on a board with our names on it, no landlady to be found ? only a note to say " help yourself to your keys, and help yourself to anything you wish in the kitchen upstairs, i will be back later " OMG you wouldnt see that in UK !!! Grest B&B comfortable and the lady of the house was awesome, she lives there to and opens her lounge and kitchen to all her guests , awesome and totaly NZ.

The next day we headed to Nelson on the coast road, now from Kaikoura its all new to us, not been higher on the SI yet , the coast road was awesome, stopped and watched the seals , stopped at a few towns on the way and we liked Blenhelm very much , gopt to Nelson late afternoon and found our cottage , which is one of the oldest in Nelson 1814 , had a wee bit of a shock as it was right across the road from the main port, but that was ok as it was close to all things and we were only sleeping there , Gibson cottage was beautiful and refurbed throughout , had some lovely old photos of MR and MRS GIboson and their kids .

Nelson seemed to have more shops than Dunedin for its size , we did a whole afternoon cruising the shops and parks, had Fush and chups on the wharf near the flash new appartments and a walk to Tahuna beach , the area is stunning around Nelson, Richmond was nice area and Mapua was gorgeous, even better with the stunning weather we had , Mapua remined me of small ports in Dorset , spent some $ in the local shops and had icecream on the wharf , beautiful .

One day we went to Kaiteriteri and Farewell spit and Takaka area, over the huge mountain and down into that gorgeous valley, long treck to Farewell spit, but worth it to see the area and say " been there " just like going to Lands end !!!

In total we had 5 wonderful days exploring Nelson and the areas around it, weather played ball and we packed in over 2500 k's , on the way back we went through the Lewis pass and did a stop over at Hanmer Springs so the Inlaws could have a splash in the hot pools , had agreat afternoon there and meal out, then headed back the next day to a dry and brown grass Dunedin and Outram area, had not seen rain down here for over 4 weeks , spent one day filling my pond with a pump in the creek .

all in all we had a great road trip away, Nelson is gorgeous and TBH we would not hesitate in living there if we could, Mapua is also a beautiful village and if we had had more time i would have tried to say hello to BEVs.

The main thing for our trip away was to see more of NZ for us and also to show the Inlaws the area in the hope they might move here to .

Here are a few pics of the area .

Lewis pass








Farewell spit





Kaiteriteri beach






Kaiteriteri





Pohutakawa trees





Kaiteriteri beach





Lewis pass stop over , left quickly to many Sand flies the size of birds !

florabundi

Thanks for sharing Fooferfish ~ those photographs are just gorgeous, glad you enjoyed yours hols

Fooferfish

Yes hols are over and back to the Prison to work tomo , at least we have got rain today, its been nearly 4 weeks without rain , but what a awesome summer down South

scrubbedexpat094

Looks absolutely fantastic. Must get down there ourselves. Maybe one for 2013

Well at least we know who's nicked the North Island's summer

nelsonpom

Good stuff, glad you got licky with the weather and enjoyed yourself. Did you try many bars/cafes/restaurants in Nelson/tahuna itself ? Always curious on feedback (I work in hospo).

shirl

I love Kaiterteri, did you do the coffee and cruise to split apple rock, have done that a couple of times. Wonderful area and last time we were there we stayed at the Latitude Apartments opposite the chippy by the port, awesome views out to sea etc. Glad you like it.