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- Day 464
- Saturday, May 26, 2018
- ⛅ 10 °C
- Altitude: 7 m
New ZealandPort Motueka41°8’8” S 173°1’24” E
Swinging around Nelson

We woke up nice and early today and headed back into the centre of Nelson to visit their Saturday market. We'd heard good things about it so thought it might be a good place to get a few trinkets and souvenirs. Luckily on a Saturday you only have to pay for parking up until 1pm in the major carparks so we paid up until then and headed to the market. It was quite sizeable and sold everything from glassware to fruit and veg. There were lots of stalls selling homemade items which was lovely but it just so happened everything I liked was either too large or quite heavy so I wouldn't have been able to get it back home easily. It was still nice to walk around and I did manage to get some caramelised cashew nuts so that in itself made the trip worthwhile. It was quite a chilly morning so we went and had a coffee to warm up our hands as well as our bellies. After warming up we headed to the town's museum which had some very good reviews online. We paid $5 each to get in and it was such a disappointment. There was no logical order to the information and not anywhere did it even talk about how and when nelson was established. The first section was about a rock and across the other side it talked about boats. It was a shame because we really felt like it would take you on the journey of the area but it just wasn't the case. After spending time reading the mishmash of information we eventually got bored of the randomness of it all and called it a day on the exhibit. The museum did have the show of National Geographic photos of the year but we saw that exhibition in Christchurch so we just decided to leave in the end. Instead we headed to Burger Culture, the only burger joint restaurant in Nelson and one that came highly recommended to us. We arrived at 12pm when it opened and by ten past all the tables were full. It was quite a cool place that even had a free old arcade game you could play on. I had my first burger with macaroni cheese in it, something my sister would probably love. It was an interesting combo but quite enjoyable. It was good food for not a terrible price so we enjoyed our lunch treat very much. Afterwards we decided to get back on the road and head towards the Abel Tasman national park. It's towards the very north of the South Island and although we have no plans of what to do there we felt it was worth a visit. We found a good freedom camping spot on Campermate that has great reviews but fills up quickly so we felt it was best to get there as soon as possible so we don't miss out. The drive was very scenic and after a while we arrived at Motueka and parked up in our camping site. It's right on the beach front so we had a stroll around the shore playing around on a rope swing which had been set up in one of the trees. For the rest of the afternoon we sat in the van playing games with the doors wide open enjoying the sound of the waves and the fresh sea air.Read more