Nelson, NZ
February 18, 2023 - February 22, 2023
On our way to Nelson, we hit our 3rd National Park - Nelson Lakes National Park. We decided to do the Mount Robert’s Loop, which was suggested to us by a local Nelson couple during our Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike. This trail was about 6 miles in length consisting of straight up the mountain at the beginning, some flatter spots at the top, and straight down to finish at the carpark. It wasn’t an easy hike, but the views were spectacular! It was a nice hike to sweat off the wine we consumed in Blenheim :-)
Once arriving at our Airbnb in Nelson, we met with the owner for our “orientation”, which Ben is NOT a fan of. He enjoys the self check-in process where you don’t have to meet with anyone. The owner was so nice and the unit definitely exceeded our expectations. The decor was so homey, it had a balcony that had views of the Tasman Sea, and it was relatively close to restaurants, the downtown, and the beach. Since we arrived around dinner time, we decided to eat out for dinner. We tried walking in to The Styx restaurant, but they were too busy to accept walk-ins. We ended up just ordering takeaway (aka To Go) from a Thai restaurant - Nahm.
Our first full day in Nelson consisted of a lot of walking, some shopping, eating at a local cafe, walking through a flea market, and carrying a 10KG weight all the way back to our Airbnb. We’ve been trying to workout some while on this trip. At the beginning we were dropping in at local fitness centers, but it’s a bit inconvenient. There is a K-mart like shop that is everywhere down here called The Warehouse. Ben found the workout section and decided we needed a kettlebell to do workouts at our accommodations instead of going to gyms. Then I decided we could use a jump rope as cardio instead of walking/running. So we pick both of those up and walk with them plus groceries 2 miles back to our Airbnb. That ended up being our workout for the day! Instead of going out to eat, Ben grilled us up some food and we enjoyed dinner and the sunset on our balcony. A nice and relaxing first day in Nelson!
Our second full day in Nelson was an adventure! We hit up our 4th National Park - Abel Tasman National Park, which is the smallest National Park in New Zealand. This National Park is unique because it’s on the coast, so you can get to it by car or boat. We opted for the boat! We drove an hour to our meeting location where we hopped on what felt like a luxurious boat taxi. There were two levels of seating, a bar/cafe, and bathrooms! There were a ton of different options to choose from. We decided to do the longer boat ride out to our hiking spot and then the longer hike back to the boat pick up spot. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride. The captain gave us all a map with numbers on it and as he drove past them, he’d explain the history of each spot. The boat made several quick stops along the way to drop off and pick up people - some of which had been doing the Great Walk at Abel Tasman consisting of beach camping and hiking throughout the National Park. One fun fact was Adele Island is an island where they are releasing endangered birds to try and repopulate them on the mainland. We also passed a seal colony island with cute little seal pups!! I can’t get enough of the seals - they are so fun to spot and watch swim/scoot around.
Once we get to our drop off destination, we hit up the toilets and start our what was advertised as an easy coastal walk. What we continuously find out is that their “easy” isn’t always easy to us. I don’t know if we are out of shape Americans or what, but the beginning wasn’t easy. The first 45 minutes was straight up. Thankfully, the hike was only about 3 miles and the views along the way were beautiful. About an hour and a half in to the walk, we came to a beach where we set up a little picnic for lunch. We laid out our towels, made ourselves some dry ham sandwiches, and enjoyed the stunning colors of the water. Once we started eating, two little seagulls decided to hang out by us. They kept getting closer and closer. One of the seagulls decided to go around to our backside where we couldn’t see it. As I go to take a bite of my sandwich, the seagull decided to fly above my head and swoop down to get my food. Thankfully I had a good grip on it - I wasn’t going to let that dang bird have a piece of my dry sandwich!!
After shoving our faces with food, we decide to go for a little swim. Ben will tell you that he swam and I didn’t, which is half true. I got in up to my waist - IT WAS COLD! After hanging in one spot of the water for a bit, we decided to walk along the beach. Because the water was so blue and clear, you could see birds diving and swimming under water. There was one shadow that looked way bigger than a bird. Ben goes in the water to try and chase it with the Go Pro to see what it is, but he was a little scared and we couldn’t get any footage on video. It ended up being a STING RAY!
We had a certain time to be back at our boat pick-up spot, so we pack our things up and walk another 15 minutes or so to Medland Beach. We are there early, so we sit down to play some Phase 10. When the boat arrives, we hop on and enjoy a 45-minute boat ride back. The boat stops again at a couple spots to pick more people up and at one of those stops, the poor people had to take their shoes off on the beach in order to board the boat. This was due to the low tide and both Ben and I are thinking we were lucky we didn’t have to go through that. As the captain pushes back from that pick-up spot, he announces that because of the low tide, everyone on the boat will have to depart without shoes on when we get back to our home base. GREAT - we thought we had dodged that one, but I guess not!
Our third and final full day in Nelson was a relaxing one - BEACH DAY! The beach was about a 2 mile walk each way from our Airbnb. We pack up our bags (didn’t bring food because we saw there was a cafe there) and head out on our walk. The area around this beach has a bunch of things to do - go karting, paint balling, water park, water bumper boats, a cafe, a food truck, and some outdoor workout equipment. We decide to do a small little workout before finding our spot on the beach. I am a pretty patient sunbather. I can’t lay there for hours, but a good 30 minutes to an hour is enough before I get a little antsy. Ben on the other hand can lay there for like 5-10 minutes before needing to go in the water or do something. After 10 minutes, Ben decides to go swim for an extra workout. He comes back, lays down for another 10 minutes and decides he’s hungry. We pack up to go to the cafe; however, it’s closed on Tuesday’s - GO FIGURE! Thankfully there was a bar/restaurant about a half mile from the beach, so we head there. I think Ben felt bad that we only got about 30 mins total of sunbathing in, so we go back to the beach for 45 minutes or so.
Overall, Nelson was a wonderful place to admire the clear blue waters, high and low tides, and a bit of that New Zealand sun. On to our next spot…
WESTPORT!
