New Zealand South Island: Nelson weekend/mini-vacation March 2018

As mentioned in previous posts, I visited New Zealand every year from 2003 through 2020, and was there when the Pandemic struck in March of 2020. This year (2025) I’ve scheduled a return visit for the first time in five years. Thinking this could be the last, I’ve been pondering which of my favorite cities and features to revisit. Although I love the south island, there are many great areas on the north island as well.

As I debated the itinerary, I came across these notes from the year 2018, probably the last time I visited Nelson, sometimes touted as the sunniest place in New Zealand and one of my very favorites. Not sure whether we’ll make it back there this year, I decided to share this post while we’re in the general vicinity.  

Friday, March 9, 2018. Our early AM flight was cancelled, and we were rescheduled to leave at 5:20 pm. We arrived around 8:30 am, so this meant a long day sitting in the Auckland airport. I tried to convince the Air NZ attendants to put us on stand-by for an earlier flight (there were several), but they insisted that we would have to surrender our seats on the 5:20 pm flight in order to be put on stand-by—and we might not get out at all. To add insult, they gave us four $6.00 meal vouchers only after I requested, and finally agreed to two more. Altogether we barely had enough to buy two non-alcoholic beverages and a breakfast sandwich.

Our 5:20 flight went fine, though, and we arrived safely. We were after hours for our car rental (off airport) and when we called to tell them we’d be late, they couldn’t leave us a car unless we found a way to print a contract, scan it and email it back from the airport. We finally managed to do this by begging an Air NZ attendant to print it and then to take a photo with our phone and email it. Verizon charged $25 US for exceeding our data allowance.

We found the car, after taking a taxi to the rental company, and drove to our hotel. Very basic but clean and quit. The proprietor gave us a bottle of milk for coffee, and I drank it down for dinner. We didn’t feel like driving anywhere that evening, and the restaurants within walking distance weren’t exciting. We had both slept poorly the night before. The hotel bed and pillows were comfortable, and we slept well.

Saturday, March 10, We drove to the city center looking for a parking place and a market. On the way we found a super-market, so we bought some supplies to take back to the hotel room. Then we found the market, where we walked around checking out the crafts and food stands. We bought some tasty beef with rice, lentils, green beans, and bread strips at a Sri Lankan stand, and found a table to sit down. A nice couple from Colorado sat with us, and we chatted while we ate. A team of dancer promoting a local production of The Full Monty performed nearby and paraded about the market passing out flyers.

We bought strawberries at a stand on our way out of the market, and they were delicious! Small and sharp in flavour, they reminded me of the ones Daddy used to grow in Mayfield. The sun warmed them in the car, and we snacked on them for the next two days.

Then we drove north into wine country. We did a tasting at the Rimu Grove vineyard and bought a bottle of Riesling. We drove on to Kaiteriteri Beach. We were scheduled originally to do a boat tour in Abel Tasman on Sunday, but I rescheduled it for Monday because the weather forecast looked warmer and sunnier. We decided on Saturday to drive on to the village (Marahou) where our boat would depart from. There was a detour because of damage from a recent cyclone (hurricane) to some of the roads and we got behind a lot of slow-moving traffic, then on a windy-grindy road. We finally found the departure point and spoke with a manager there about the timing of our drive from Nelson on Monday morning. He spoke with the tour guide, who offered to meet us in Motueka at 7:30 am instead of Marahou at 8:30, but we decided to stick to the original plan.

By the time we got back to the hotel, Norm was exhausted from driving on the left on narrow, winding roads!

Sunday, March 11. Norman preferred not to do much driving this day, so we spent it in Nelson. Turned out to be a beautiful sunny day despite the forecast. There was another market in the town center (used things this time), no strawberries (bummer). I bought a vinyl Loretta Lynn album and looked at old books but didn’t buy.

We went to the Melrose House and gardens, which were lovely. They offered high tea, but we hadn’t booked in time; so we ordered from the menu instead. We split two meals: one, a delicious red cod with poached eggs benedict and the other, ricotta hotcakes with berries. Yummy!

Then we drove to the beach near our hotel, Tahunanui Beach, and I went for a swim (chilly but refreshing).

That evening we drove back to the town center looking for a restaurant we’d seen advertised. It was closed, but nearby we found Burger Culture. We sat outside and shared a delicious fish burger (crumbed John Dory fillet) on a black bun with sides of salad (for me) and fries (for Norm). They advertised shakes, burgers and donuts and they served milkshakes with donuts on top! We resisted that temptation.

Monday, March 12. Abel Tasman National Park. We drove to the departure point for our ecological tour, and traffic wasn’t bad at all. The tour guide (Stew) did a great job of describing the environmental challenges of protecting a marine preserve that couldn’t be properly policed. He took us for a couple of walks on islands, where we saw a waterfall, on one, and Norm splashed in the cold, cold water under the falls. On the other (longer walk) we saw a lot of birds, including a wood pigeon (huge, near the size of a chicken) and he showed us vegetation, trees and various species of adult whitebait. We heard bell birds and saw them from a distance flitting about, and a fantail. When the walk ended, I rushed to the outdoor toilet, where I got nailed multiple times by sand flies. We carried our own lunch, though our guide (Stew) furnished some excellent chocolate cake and coffee or tea (for morning snack). Norm and I took cheeses (blue cheese and camembert) and crackers, muffins (one apricot and one coffee walnut), and bottled water. I chatted with a retired school teacher from Germany, who had been struggling to deal with retired life.

The water was a brilliant turquoise, and we saw seals, eagle rays and a number of blue penguins from the boat. We returned to our departure point by around 3:15 pm.

Upon returning to the hotel, I went for a nice, chilly swim in the hotel pool (as I had not gotten in the ocean). Then we drove back to the city center and ate dinner at The Vic, next door to Burger Culture. We shared a seared tuna dish and a seafood chowder with tasty bread, and I had an iced chocolate drink for dessert.

Tuesday, March 13. Last day in Nelson. We packed and checked out of the hotel fairly early. Then we drove to a restaurant I’d seen advertised for brunch on the “fiver”. We had eggs benedict on rye bread, but the bread was a little dry. I asked for extra Hollandaise, which finally arrived.

Then we drove to a nearby town (suburb) of Stoke, where we visited a historical home that housed a fascinating dollhouse and miniature town display, with replicas of a general store, cake shop, millinery, butcher’s and many more. We chatted with the volunteer workers there about history, both in America and NZ.

Then we went back to Tahunanui Beach, where I took one last swim before changing and heading to the car rental place to drop off the car and catch a shuttle to the airport. We stopped at a bakery to buy a sandwich and an éclair (custard-filed long john) to eat at the airport. We also stopped by our hotel to return the towel I had borrowed for my swim.

​Better luck with our flight back to Auckland on JetStar than with Air New Zealand.