enter: Nelson

Nelson is the arts-and-crafts capital of New Zealand. No surprise then, that I loved this place.

We arrived by a windy bus-ride, and were spit up at the station with time to wait. I was so eager to explore the city, but turns out carrying large backpacks asnd duffels makes it a little hard. We did get a coffee, while we waited to be picked up by Gwenny, our WWOOFing host.

Originally from England, very matter-of-fact, Gwenny was a character. She lived in this 150 year-old house, with many of the original decorations and tins from when her parents had moved in during the 1960's (she admitted to us that she didn't like change.) But we found another side of her when we met her partner, Jace, an American with a common passion for Latin dance. Our first night there, we tagged along to join the Roeta class Jace was teaching, a type of salsa. We learned turns and partner changes in a small restaurant (I think we were good entertainment for the other customers.)

Our main jobs as WWOOFers were weeding thistles and foxglove in paddocks, cleaning porches, and stacking firewood. The land was nice, with lots of fruit trees and some sheep. We daily shook grapefruits from the tree, though these were very sour grapefruits. We tried baking them, with sugar and butter and cinnamon (I had seen the recipe before), but they didn't turn out very good. Way too sour.



Our trips into Nelson were nice, we saw a lot of art galleries, watched a man blowing glass, and stopped in the many bookstores, yarn shops, etc. The feel of the city was really nice, very laid-back and walkable.


This is Zippy's Vegetarian Cafe, just one of the more colorful ones we stopped in. Found out that ginger-oat slices are a very good thing.

We did stop in a few Asian markets, too. Hi Megan, I thought of you. These Japanese snacks were so cute! They had like, ones blowing bubbles and skipping rope, and behind the cupcake one there's a spatula.

We got baby carrots (and rosemary-infused honey) at a small market. Organic and fresh and oh-so-tasty. Photographed here with the packets of tea we had picked up at their Green Grocer.



The Market on Saturday made Nelson light up. The market itself was full of wood-workers, soap-makers, seamstresses, painters, bakers, coffee-makers, jewellers, potters, and knitters.


I was especially inspired by the screen-printing and sewing I saw, like these bird wallets. Bexie and I each bought one of the badges on the right.

And origami. The mobile on the left is kiwi-birds, and the guy told Bexie he would teach us how to make it, if we found origami paper to learn on. So we searched, but couldn't seem to find any. So we went online at the hostel and tried to learn. The ones we made weren't as good, though...


After the market we caught a bus back to Picton, and got straight onto a smaller ferry ( making for a much more bumpy trip than the first time), but had a good picnic of Nelson-market buys; gluten-free seed bread, the rosemary-honey, and really salty and good feta.

I think Nelson would be a good place to start a business, or raise a family, or start an action group. There's so many artists and alternative-thinkers there, but at the same time it's a really calm and close-knit feeling. Even though it's the sunniest place in New Zealand, it did rain half the time we were there. But rainy days make for good reading and knitting days, so I don't particularly mind...