Nelson NZ

Our first destination in the South Island of NZ was Nelson. Established in 1841, it is the second-oldest settled city in New Zealand, the oldest in the South Island and was proclaimed a city by royal charter in 1858. There are around 50,000 people these days. We were pleasantly surprised by how welcoming it was and it soon went to the top of the list as our favourite NZ town to date. We spent quite a bit of time there, over the Christmas period, visiting friends, getting our mail and doing various other admin tasks. The town is well situated, almost at the geographic centre of NZ and due to its location and temperate oceanic climate is known as 'Sunny Nelson'. On one of those beautiful sunny days we hiked up to the 'Centre of NZ' monument where the town was spread out below us. In the distance the golden coastline of Abel Tasman National Park could be seen, one of three National Parks in the area.

The central business district was fully occupied, clean, inviting and the many sidewalk cafes and bars were all packed with people. We soon found a couple of favourite haunts: the Swedish Bakery, where we quickly became addicted to their date and orange scones and Chocdee, a reasonably-priced (for NZ) Thai restaurant where we enjoyed a couple of excellent dinners out, a real treat. The Saturday Farmer's Market was also amazing, with locally grown fresh fruit on offer. We're enjoying spring treats like cherries, strawberries and asparagus for the second time this year!

The streetscape is interesting with many heritage buildings.

The houses were beautifully kept and many were festooned with cascades of spring blossoms.

One thing we really like about NZ is that most of the houses are very modest, by North American standards, but, the scale seems more appropriate if you're searching for a simpler life. We find the many examples of Victorian and Edwardian Cottage-style very appealing.

On Christmas Eve, we attended the candlelight carol sing on the cathedral steps in the centre of town. The cathedral is Art Deco-styled and somehow, to me, just doesn't have the same architectural appeal as a traditional, European, medieval Gothic cathedral, but, I suppose some people like it and it certainly takes centre stage and dominates the town. It seemed crazy to be singing Jingle Bells and the like on a beautiful, warm evening with palm trees and blossoms all round.There were a few special NZ carols as well that were more apropos for a Southern Hemisphere Christmas celebration.