Nelson Region

Sunday 24 October
After a very peaceful night at Pelorus Bridge and a cooked breakfast, we headed towards Nelson. One the way we saw something I cannot recall ever seeing in NZ before – a herd of buffalo!
Our first stop was at Cable Bay, the site where the first cable between Australia and New Zealand was laid, in 1876. The cable originally came ashore near Nelson because the South Island was much more important than the North Island at that time. When the cable station came into service it caused great excitement as it meant that people here could send a telegram to England, taking only 4 days for their message to arrive rather than up to 6 months for letters! In March 2001, Telecom installed a new 200km fibre-optic cable from the same place across Cook Strait to Levin. We walked up a steep hillside to a lookout point, but I jiggered my knee on the way up so we didn’t do any more of the track. I’ve been hobbling on and off for the rest of the day.
They say Nelson has the highest number of sunny days anywhere in the country. Sadly today was not one of them. Although the forecast rain did not arrive, we’ve had low cloud and occasional drizzle all day. After a big supermarket shop we drove through to Tahunanui Beach, where we took a packed lunch onto the beach. Charlie only managed to eat half of his filled roll before a seagull swooped down from behind him and plucked it out of his hand! He was left with nothing more than a single slice of tomato, and a big splat of mustard down the front of his shirt! Harrumph!
Our parking spot tonight is ‘Stoneridge’, a semi-rural property in the Moutere valley where we are surrounded by paddocks and vines, and a rather unusual mob of self-moulting sheep.Read more