Sunday 13 April:
This morning I visited the Nelson Classic Car Museum. There used to be a WOW (World of Wearable Arts) and Collectable Cars Museum at this location, but the WOW section closed down at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the extra area available allowing the Classic Cars Museum to expand and re-open in mid-2020.
There are 150 cars spanning 120 years of motoring, the oldest being ——
—– this 1903 Cadillac, and the youngest being —–
—– this 2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The Corvette is the longest running automobile brand in the whole automobile industry, comprising 8 generations of the model stretching over 71 years.
Homage was also paid to the very first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine via this —–
—– poster of the Benz Patent-motorwagon of 1886.
There was a special area for Jaguar cars ——
—– from the earliest models up to —–
—– the most famous in the range, the E-type sports car (the final version here on the left).
There were loads of huge American cars of the 1950s drive in cinema era —–
—– such as this Plymouth (on the left), as well as a nod to the failed DeLorean (of “Back to the Future” movie fame).
Two large separate buildings housed the collection, with —–
—– the second lot of displays covering many UK and European models, —–
—– with a number of early MGs exhibited here.
The buildings in which the museum is housed used to be the Nelson Car Assembly Plant which operated from 1964 through to 1997, at which time tariffs were removed on the import of overseas assembled cars.
My second visit of today was the Suter Art Gallery in the City CBD area.
On the entrance steps was this sculpture “Accidental Intentions” and in the grounds adjacent to Queens Gardens were several sculptures including —–
—– this one labelled “Crystal Cluster No. 2”.
Of the internal displays three caught my eye, —–
—– this first one being a 2m high larger than life lei where stone and paua shell are laced together alternately, the second ——
—– this very realistic portrayal of a traction engine, bringing back memories of harvesting on my grandfather Herron’s farm in the early 1940s, and the third —–
—— this painting entitled “Summer’s Farewell”.
I finished the day at the Miyazu Japanese Garden with planting starting in 1990 and opening in 1993. Nelson and Miyazu became sister cities in 1976, and this garden commentates the strong ties between the two.
A range of Japanese trees grew throughout the garden, these being the most unusual.
Water features prominently in the garden, with a typical pond and bridge, ——
—– and these two youngsters looking for eels in the lily pond (they told me they had seen numbers of eels on past visits).
On the way back to the van I was impressed with the Whakatu Marae entrance. Both the Marae and the Miyazu Garden share the same carpark; and are next door to Founders Heritage Park.
Monday 14 April:
It was another sunny Nelson day as I took off for Lake Rotoiti heading cross country from near Wakefield south of the city across to Golden Downs and Top House into St Arnaud. Just before Wakefield I came to Brightwater where Lord Rutherford (Sir Earnest) was born, and explored a grand memorial terraced garden in his memory.
There was this replica of his childhood home in Nelson’s Founders Park ——–
—– and inside the front door this cartoon of “Mr Science” batting away at electrons with a fly swat.
The entrance to the Brightwater memorial led upstairs to terraces full of story-boards on his early life, education, early research and discoveries and the lifetime awards he received – quite a guy actually.
There were other visitors there at the time, and the gardens clearly indicated autumn was on the way.
The Golden Downs forest is where the real geographical centre of NZ is located (as I mentioned last week), but there was no information about this when I checked the history of the area —–
—– on the story boards at the NZ Forest Service (1919 to 1987) picnic area.
Maybe the real Centre of NZ is out there in these trees somewhere. Active logging was everywhere around the locality with “Watch out for Trucks” signs near all the side roads.
There was one real blast from the past at Golden Downs, being —–
—— this sign for the Nelson Pistol Club, here nearly 55km from the city, away out in the back country surrounded by pine forests. What has it to do with the past? Well, how often do you hear the term “pistol” used these days – revolver seems more common. “Pistol” was my nickname over 5 years at Gore High School. All the boys at school called me by that name (teachers and girls were more discerning, calling me Ian).
Just before St Arnaud is the Historic Inn, “Top House”, which was established in 1887 as a way-stop for drovers bringing sheep from Canterbury into Marlborough over the Top House Saddle.
In fact the first Historic Place sign I saw the next day travelling to Blenheim from St Arnaud was —–
—– this cairn recording that the first flock of merino sheep to reach the Wairau Plains was over the Top House Saddle in November 1846.
In St Arnaud I spent the night in the DoC campsite at West Bay, Lake Rotoiti, and was greeted as I parked up the motorhome by a friendly black robin —–
—– who kept fossicking around my feet as I prepared for a late afternoon walk.
There were a few people around, but numbers are dropping as we move into the colder autumn days. The area was clearly special to a lady and her art gear ——
—– as she concentrated on the scenery when I passed by on the track.
Her view of the lake was to the inlet west of the jetty, and from what I could see was producing a very accurate depiction – she is watercolour good.
Tuesday 15 April:
I moved around to Kerr Bay first thing in the morning to access the lakeside walks.
The lake is so peaceful in the early morning – it is a good time to take a forest walk —–
—– with loud birdsong all along the lakeshore tracks. I took the Honeydew 50 minute return walk amongst the mix of red, silver and mountain beech trees.
Honeydew is a sweet sugar-rich solution produced by a small insect which lives hidden in the bark of beech trees. The droplets of honeydew form —–
—– on the ends of fine hairs protruding from the bark. Can you spot a tiny droplet in the centre of the above picture? Birds, bats, insects and lizards feed on the droplets, but unfortunately it is introduced wasps that thrive on this food supply during the summer.
I had a lazy morning in Kerr Bay watching people come and go, and was intrigued to see —–
—– this guy try out the lake with his “surf” board and wind sail. The wind had got up quite strong, and he took off away out from the shore but could not tack back against the wind, and spent ages face down on his board paddling back to shore towing the sail behind him.
From St Arnaud I took the main road over the Top House Saddle into the Wairau River Valley and headed for the Lake Argyle freedom camping site for the night. Actually Lake Argyle is shown on the map as Argyle Pond, as it as a lagoon behind a dam which provides water to the Argyle Power Scheme (another of the small local schemes I keep coming across around the country).
As I headed along the top of the dam I could see the camping spot across the low water level in the “pond” with the only other motorhome there for the night already set up in the camp location.
Wednesday 16 April:
Picton was my destination for the day, but at 7.30 there was light enough to find quite a selection of birdlife on the “pond”. Of particular note were —–
—– a group of spoonbill (two shown here) —–
—– and a family of black swan, father, mother, and six white cygnets with their black bills.
The Argyle Power Station was undergoing maintenance, —–
—– so no water was passing down the tailrace (it was just a elongated still pond itself).
My trip to Picton was to take the Beachcomber Mail Boat Cruse to upper Charlotte Sound visiting East Bay and Endeavour Inlet. This four hour cruise began in light rain at 1.30pm, but in the upper Sound it was dry although cloudy.
I parked at the Coathanger Bridge carpark adjacent to the Picton marina, and was able to pay the all-day $6 fee from the van using the PayMyPark phone app that I first used in Queenstown. You load enough credit onto your account to cover the day, dial in the carpark location and time required for parking, and the preloaded info re the van and me automatically secures payment and sends a receipt. [Thursday 8.00am next day I heard a toot-toot car horn sound from my phone and found a text message saying my parking fee was now all used up!!! These phone apps are clever. This all-day parking fee extended 24 hours from 8.00am to 8.00am) ]
While taking a photo of the front of the cruise boat Tiri Cat, the skipper leaned out from the bridge and quietly said to me “look over your shoulder” —–
—— and there was this guy getting ready for his next dive.
Both the Interislander “Kaitaki” and the Bluebridge “ Connemara” were loading up for 2pm sailings as we ——
—– hit top speed (18 knots or 33 kph).
East Bay near the top of Queen Charlotte Sound was our first drop-off location for mail and parcels.
This lady, who has a small farmlet at East Bay, is here unloading bread and chainsaws and booze and whatever else one needs for a few weeks —–
—– in this remote place. You can see the wind was getting up as we headed away while she went to get a trolley to take her supplies home. However, although in exposed water it was choppy, it was still a comfortable ride as we crossed the main shipping channel down Charlotte Sound from Cook Strait to Picton in order to cruise up Endeavour Inlet for mail delivery and hiker pickups.
All freighters (such as this empty log transporter) and cruise liners take this main channel – only the Cook Strait ferries are permitted to use the Tory Channel which is effectively a short-cut to Wellington.
Tawa Cove was a delightfully sheltered little bush-lined bay where the owner had two excited dogs to welcome the mail boat. The skipper always had a treat for these dogs, hence all the vigorous tail wagging as we approached the jetty. There are three sculptures in this photo, only discovered by me as I copied them to place in this email. One is above the head of the man on the jetty, another is on the right bank, the blue shape just above the roof of the white boat, and of course you have probably spotted the larger than life-size hectors dolphin at the left upper centre of the picture.
This resident’s home was modern and looked luxurious – there were many houses scattered around Endeavour Inlet, with all of the modern ones (and I saw a lot) well into the six figures in cost, as building out here is very expensive. All the jetties had large commercial rubbish bins, so council presumably picks up maybe monthly (I never asked).
At Ferneaux Lodge (famous for the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, New Year’s Eve, 1 January 1998) we were allowed to stretch our legs on-shore while our skipper waited to check-in hikers being taken back to Picton with us.
Then a family joined us further round at another lodge jetty – overall we came back with 15 more travellers than the 8 of us who were day trippers. We headed back to Picton, again at top speed, passing a black seal (waving a flipper at us) so fast the pictures I got were quite out-of-focus.
Overall, a really great experience for an afternoon on the Sound.
Thursday 17 April:
In heading along the “wineries road” up the Wairau valley to Havelock on SH62 from Spring Creek (north of Blenheim) I noted that some vines were —–
—– now showing autumn colours while ——
—– grapes on green vines were still being harvested.
In the midst of this long straight road of vineyard after vineyard there was a stand-out alternative attraction I just had to stop and explore, —–
—– a chocolate factory in the middle of the vines.
The working floor was busy, as was —–
—–the retail area with Easter displays. I am not sure if —–
—–this tote bag is a suitable Easter gift.
Further on the road to Havelock (where I have another cruise booked for tomorrow) I got a close-up view of the logging industry in action. Cable harvesting uses a special system to pick-up logs and lower them down the slopes for sorting and loading.
In addition, “slash” (behind the green machine), being the leftovers from trimming the trees after felling, is also brought down the slopes and removed so that heavy rain will not wash that material downhill into streams and rivers causing serious flood damage.
Loaded logs are neatly packed onto truck and trailer units of which I have seen many on the roads since Golden Downs.
So into Havelock, the Green Mussel capital of NZ.
[P.S. I do not like shellfish, so had to find an alternative café for lunch.]
Good Friday 18 April:
It was cloudy as we embarked on the Pelorus Express Mail Boat for the Friday run 57km up to the top of Pelorus Sound where we were fully exposed to the ocean swell.
Some 35 passengers joined the boat at Havelock, 15 of who were on holiday or walking trips and thus distributed around various jetties throughout the Sound as we travelled.
This boat was more modern than the Queen Charlotte Mail Boat of Wednesday – it travelled faster at 20 knots (38kph), and had a fully licensed bar. We had to bring our own lunch, but tea and coffee were provided for helping one-self at any time.
Although we travelled at speed, we could not match some of the recreational fisher boats which raced past us at maybe 30 knots or more.
We picked up speed as we left the low clouds behind over Havelock ——-
—– passing farmland, and forestry blocks, as well —–
—– as mussel farms. There are 700 green lipped mussel farms in Pelorus, each occupying a hectare of sea surface area. Some 200 tonne/day is harvested throughout the year, of which most is exported fresh overseas. Some is freeze dried then powdered and formed into pills used for the relief of arthritis pain.
Outside the forestry and farming blocks regeneration of native forest is occurring, assisted by a huge programme of wilding pine control. If the trees are chopped down then the pine cones release seed which birds can distribute around other areas. So the trees are poisoned by injecting a chemical control into the trunk – this kills both the tree and the cone seeds. However, this leaves a mess of dead trunks sticking out of the bush for years until they rot and fall and the bush fully takes over.
We had some 12 or so stops at jetties throughout the Sound to drop off mail or passengers on holiday. At each jetty we were usually met by the local resident’s dog —–
—– who supervised the unloading, and scoffed up treats —–
—- given out by the boat skipper (here receiving a dog biscuit).
Other greeters on jetties included this woolly dog, —–
—– this fur seal (who took one look at us and jumped into the water) ——
—— and this kunekune pig, who was waiting for us knowing she would get apples and other fruit treats.
We stopped in a quiet bay nosed into a gravel beach littered with driftwood to have lunch. You could either stay on board and eat, or picnic on the shore.
After lunch we got close in to one of the mussel farms while manoeuvring to view a salmon farm.
The huge enclosures holding salmon have nets under and around each pen, with boardwalks for the staff to monitor fish condition and distribute food pellets; The boardwalks around the pens —–
—– attract fur seals who seem to sleep most of the time.
The large “mother ship” servicing the farm provides living quarters for staff as well as compressed air (from those lines floating across to the platform) to power pumps and food distribution equipment.
The most fascinating visit of the day was in a sheltered bay right at the top of the Sound where a “ship wrecking yard” (like a car wrecking yard) was carrying out its business.
The people operating this business would hunt out old wrecks around the NZ coast and either scavenge the bits, or if feasible refloat the wreck and tow it back here for dismantling. They would recover all the metal work and as many good timber items as they could.
This wreck has had a real good going over, and now they are stuck with it, along with other bits and pieces of boats around the bay shoreline.
The whole place was a marine junkyard, but these guys made a living out of it.
Further back down the Sound as we completed our mail deliveries and passenger drops it was head back to Havelock at full speed in the rain.
So ends this set of notes, a six-day version, as tomorrow, Saturday, I head for 3 days freedom camping on the coast east of Blenheim and out of internet contact.
I will be back in Picton for the Ship Cove Cruise up Queen Charlotte Sound on Wednesday 23 April, then again on Anzac Day (Friday 25th) to catch the Interislander for Wellington. Next week will also be a six-day one as I wind up my South Island travels and head home.
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