Nelson

May 12
5 min read

Updated: May 12

4-12 May, 2026 we were in Nelson, NZ. Nelson is the oldest city in the South Island, settled in 1841, and named after Admiral Nelson. It holds records for high sunshine hours, often over 2700 hours annually. Unfortunately, it rained several days of our visit.. It's urban population is around 60,000. It is near several national parks, among them is the Abel Tasman National Park.

May 4 - We had a wonderful, and long, drive from Christchurch to Nelson.

First we found ourselves driving through Sheffield. There is a Sheffield in England and Chris supports this team.

We found ourselves trying pies again. The coffee was wonderful and the pie made it to second place.

We drove through Porters Pass which is the pass that leads travellers from the mountains to the mountains down to the flats. There was a nice view.

Our next stop was Castle Hill which had really cool rock formations. We didn't have time to hike enough around the formations, but we did get a nice taste of it.

Chris had another influencer shot on the way back to the car

Arthur's Pass was next. It gets a lot of publicity on the "socials". We missed the train stop, so didn't get a photo of the better sign, but did see the passenger train which we decided not to take. We also stopped at the general store, but didn't have a pie.

Next was a short hike on the Devil's Punchbowl Track. This was a short walk, about 1.5 miles and up about 500 feet, which took us to see the waterfall (again, big in the "socials").

We stopped at a great bakery in Reefton for lunch. It was pie again. Not as good as in Ataroa, but good, about 8/10. The bottom crust wasn't made by hand. My iced coffee came out looking more like a coffee milkshake. It tasted great, but not like iced coffee.

Followed by the Otira Viaduct Lookout where we saw "death curve". It didn't look so deadly.

Just after this, we drove by an interesting viaduct channeling water away from the road

We stopped again to see the "longest swing bridge in NZ". There was also some interesting information about a big earthquake that shifted the area about 16 feet on either side of the fault and a gold miner's cabin.

Where I was able to get a great photo of a Tomtitt

We drove almost until dark

before ending up in Nelson at our "black and red" AirBnB.

They also had a feijoa tree in the back. Some people love this fruit. I think it tastes like soap. Evidently, it's a genetic thing - you either love them or hate them.

Cinco de Mayo: The weather was beautiful, so we decided to hike part of the Abel-Tasman Coast Track - to Yellow Point. This walk was similar to the SW Coast Path in the UK - all along the coast. Beautiful views and pretty easy. It was 7.3 miles and about 800 foot elevation gain.

Along the way we stopped to see the split apple rock - also big on the "socials". Amazingly there were no people - the tourist season is officially over. It was kind of cool. The beach was pretty. I read that if you went there at low tide, you could walk to the rock. We were there at low tide and it was still pretty far away.... There was a small cave nearby we looked into.

What was amazing today were the birds. This pied cormorant was 6 inches from me and not scared at all.

There were several wakas walking around

and these swamp hens.

All the birds were very friendly, probably because people fed them (which they weren't supposed to do).

All the other hikers were either really old or on parental leave.

On the way home we stopped for a snack at Toad Hall in Motueka. This turned out to be a full out meal which started with dessert (life is short). This was ice cream mixed with your choice of fruit. I chose boysenberries. It was made to order using this machine.

They also had...pies. These were great and we put them in second place. 9/10 - tastier than yesterday, but had a manufactured bottom.

and coffee. Chris loved the coffee, but I found it a bit bitter.

May 6: Maitai Cave hike. This was probably the best "non-organized" hike of the trip, so far.... Possibly the best part was the hardest and once it got to the "non-maintained" portion. It was 7miles and about 1200 foot elevation gain. Weather was sunny and breezy.

Some of the highlights:

Wild forest

Possum sighting

river crossing (no porters to carry us across)

spelunking

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/720c8b_c99a82e11ac34feeb5c591f3afb9e696/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This was also date night and we had a wonderful Thai dinner. One of the least expensive and some of the best food of the trip which included vegetarian spring rolls and shrimp pad thai.

May 7 was awful weather. We spent the time going to the movies and seeing a locally made movie called Sgt. Haane. Won't make the global circuit, but the man was incredibly brave and rightfully remembered.

We visited Jans Hansen Jewelry store where the Lord of the Rings ring was made. (Chris is modeling the ring - if you look closely you can see it).

May 8 was even worse weather. We went to another matinee.

May 9 - Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market and bought some vegetables and a great sourdough baguette. Almost all bread in New Zealand appears to be sourdough. There was an interesting display of oyster mushrooms.

Since it was so close, we took a side trip to the not-too-pretty cathedral which included a salute to the scouts and Madame Baden-Powell

We stopped for tea at the Melrose House Cafe. This cafe is located in the restored Melrose House built in 1841 by Charles Watts. And walked by the Bunny Cafe (which was closed).

The afternoon was a trip to The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary which is a bird sanctuary. We saw nothing. Only 2 fantails. The big excitement was seeing an all black fantail which flew into the reception area - normally fantails are black and white and all black is relatively rare.

We didn't even see the gekko that was in an aquarium. We barely saw the fish that were in another aquarium. We were very disappointed.

May 10 - Hiking the Grampions. Today the weather was again glorious and windy. Today is was our last hiking day in Nelson. The Grampions are the hills surrounding Nelson and the top offers a lovely view of the area. It was steep - 1100 feet in 1.5 miles (3.5 round trip).