Nelson, New Zealand

Today we are in Nelson, NZ, our first ever time here, and we were very impressed.  Nelson is a charming city of about 45,000 people, located at the very top of the South Island.  By contrast, Auckland is near the top of the North Island.  Nelson, named for Admiral Nelson, is renowned for its clever arts and crafts and relaxed lifestyle. Its inhabitants descend mainly from British settlers (1841) and German settlers (1843).  Most of them came fleeing religious persecution.  The city of Nelson was actually founded in 1853 and so is a pretty new place.  It is known for its sun, which of course explains why it was drizzling this morning!  Here are a few other interesting (or so I think) facts about Nelson.  It has 13 craft breweries and 25 wineries, more per capita than anywhere else in New Zealand.  It also has the largest fishing fleet in the country. 

I had no idea what to expect at this stop.  After a leisurely morning (that meant staying in bed as long as I could), I ventured out on my own as Michael had an excursion today. The skies were overcast with a noticeable drizzle. Seabourn has very nice golf-sized black and white umbrellas for passengers to use. I'll get to the umbrellas later. I waited for the shuttle that would take us to town, which was a short 5 minute ride once we got out of the port area. Like the harbor in Wellington, there were massive rows of logs waiting to be shipped to China, who would then process them and ship the wood back even though there was a lumber mill in town. 

The town of Nelson was charming. There were huge shade trees on both sides of the street. The small shops and storefronts were unique and I did not see any vacancies. The prices were quite high, especially compared to prices in the US.  The city even printed a brochure giving discounts to Seabourn passengers. It was printed on the front page of the brochure, "Welcome Seabourn Sojourn Passengers."  How neat was that!!

My plan today was to get my bangs cut, and I found a salon that promptly took care of the task. I walked to the cathedral, but decided not to go in as the stairs were a no no with bum knees. I could have walked up a path through a garden to get there, but if have seen enough churches to last me a lifetime.  I wandered back down the other side of the street and noticed Seabourn umbrellas sitting abandoned on benches and in trash cans. I wondered what the people who abandoned them thought about how they would be collected. Someone is paying for it, ya know!?

I was hoping to meet up with Michael, but I was hurting pretty bad by now.   I made my way back to the shuttle stop. By now the sun had finally come out and it was getting a bit warm and sticky.  More abandoned umbrellas were lying about. I got on the shuttle back to the ship and there were oodles of umbrellas piled high in the bus.  Again, who was going to pick them up, but more important, why should I worry about it?  Sometimes I just don't understand people. 

So I returned to the ship for a late lunch and a prone position with my knee proped up.  I emailed my doctor asking for any advice he could give me to deal with the pain, but strengthening the leg muscles was all he could offer. I am carefully and selectively using my pain pills for when I REALLY need them.  

MICHAEL'S TURN:

I was tasked today to escort an excursion to two of the city’s most famous museums - The World of Wearable Art Museum (the name is shortened to WOW) and The Classic Car Museum.  Now, before you laugh, they were both unexpectedly terrific.  WOW is home to some unimaginably spectacular clothing that doubles as art.  Designers from around the world submit entries to various wearable art competitions and the winners all end up in this museum.  It truly was breathtaking, and I’m not exactly into women’s clothing (no pun intended)

Next door to WOW is The Classic Car Museum.  I had been expecting a small collection, maybe somebody’s garage, but I was wrong.  It is an enormous collection of beautifully restored automobiles, both rare and valuable.  What was particularly fun was to see some of my favorites, such as the 1959 Cadillac, all with right hand drive.  It looks odd at first but then it becomes totally normal.

After the museums we traveled inland through Richmond (population 49,000), which is in the Tasman Region, and into the quaint Upper Moutere which is where most of the Germans settled in the mid 1800’s.  This is a mostly agricultural area still, and is known for its kiwi, wine, olives, hemp, apples, and most importantly for its hops.  This is the only area in all of New Zealand where hops can be grown, and so is crucial to the beer industry.  The 1 ½ hours we spent touring this area was, however, exceedingly boring, and I have recommended that the ship discontinue this tour.  Finally, we climbed a mountain close to town to have an overlook at Nelson.  This too could and should have been skipped.

I returned to downtown Nelson after lunch and found that it is indeed a charming little community.  Most of the stores are small shops and the merchants made us all feel very welcome.  In fact, the headline in the daily newspaper, the Nelson Mail, was all about our ship and our arrival.  I bought a copy as a souvenir. 

BEVERLY IS BACK:

Tonight was our big bridge dinner. It was held in Restaurant 2, which was magnificently decorated in a card symbol theme courtesy of stuff we brought from home. We invited 40 of our regular players and served a Chinese dinner (of course you all know that Chinese food is Michael's favorite). I wanted fried chicken ??? I just had a yen for it (ya get it?), but chef said no to that and that the Chinese menu would not present a problem.  I was a bit worried about that because not all people like Chinese food. Well, chef out did himself and the food was devine. Everyone said it was the best meal they had eaten on the ship so far. The party was a great success, and I was told I could go to KFC in Sydney to get my fix. I just might do that!