Nelson

After finishing our adventures in the Golden Bay area, we drove back to Nelson to spend a long weekend there.  Nelson is a fine and sunny city with about 45,000 people, and is known as an arts and culture center for New Zealand.  We started our city time by walking around to reestablish our bearings, ending the afternoon with a visit to the Free House, an unusual craft beer bar located in a deconsecrated church.  We finished the day with a concert, seeing Simon Thacker and his band Ritmata from Scotland.  Simon is a classical guitarist, but his band plays in a jazz-influenced style, performing musical arrangements with influences from medieval canons, Sephardic music, east Indian ragas, Native American music and more.

Inside the Free House

Simon Thacker and Ritmata

On Saturday we visited the Nelson Market.  There are a lot of vendors, with produce, other food products, food trucks, crafts, and antiques.  We could spend hours there - between the goods, the food and the people, it's a fun and interesting place.  We also found a bakery where we watched the baker make savoury pies, a staple at every bakery in New Zealand.

In the afternoon we visited Old St. John's Church to listen to the Chroma Chamber Choir's spring concert.

Old St. John's

On Sunday we checked out the city flea market, then walked to the edge of town and visited Founders Heritage Park, a collection of buildings and exhibits that tell Nelson's history.  On the way back we walked up a hill to visit the "Centre of New Zealand", allegedly the geographical center of New Zealand.  There are nice views from up there.  We finished the day with dinner at the East Street Vegetarian Cafe - wish they franchised to Eau Claire.

Sunday flea market

Magnolia tree in Founders Heritage Park

View of Nelson city from the "Centre of New Zealand"

Paul enjoys the pasta special at East Street Vegetarian Cafe

Monday was tour day.  We started out at Pic's Peanut Butter in the Nelson suburb of Stoke.  Pic Picot didn't like the peanut butter he bought in the stores after noticing the added sugar, so he started making his own natural peanut butter.  He began selling it at the Nelson Market, and then gradually worked it into local supermarkets and beyond.  It's now the number one brand in New Zealand, with sales still growing as they expand to Australia and beyond.  We shared the fun forty-five minute tour with a group of Japanese students visiting the Nelson-Marlborough Institute of Technology, got to taste four different nut butters, and even got to make our own peanut butter.

Pic's Peanut Butter factory

Answering questions during the peanut butter quiz with the visiting students from Japan

Paul got to be a tour helper by passing out the samples

Cindy grinds her own peanut butter

We also walked around town, seeing the impressive Nelson bikeway and finding another interesting road sign.

After spending a few hours in downtown Stoke, we visited the Stoke Brewery.  Connected to the larger McCashin's Brewery, the Stoke Brewery focuses on lower-production craft beers.  The differences compared to USA safety regulations were quickly apparent - we got to put our heads in the fermenting bins to smell the beer, walk around all parts of the brewery next to the workers, and dodge fork lift trucks as they whizzed by us in the building.  We ended the day by visiting the launch celebration for China Week, celebrating a sister city relationship between Nelson and Huangshi, China.

This was the second set of five tasting samples

Young girl at the China celebration

Alas, our two weeks traveling had to come to an end.  On Tuesday we flew out of Nelson, crossing the snowy Southern Alps on our way back to Christchurch.