Nelson & Around

Our first days on the South Island were spent wine tasting in the beautiful Marlborough region (post still to come!), and then in Nelson.

After driving off the ferry, we stopped for a great lunch in this great little deli called BV Gourmets in Blenheim (it was even paleo friendly!). Back on the road, we came across a cherry tree orchard where you could pick your own cherries. We made a last second decision to stop and had a blast picking delicious fresh cherries and them eating them the rest of the way to Renwick.

In Renwick, we stayed in a great B&B called the Olde Mill House. Our hosts Robert and Diane were fantastic and the property was beautiful.

We had free bikes to use to venture to the wineries in the area, and a great deck to enjoy a barbecued steak straight from the local butcher at the end of the day.

Certainly one of our favorite parts of the trip so far and a nice respite from a few long drives!

The following day, on our way to Nelson, we stopped in Havelock to eat green lipped mussels in the Marlborough Sounds at a nice little cafe called Slip Inn. This area is known for their mussels, and they did not disappoint. We enjoyed the good food, coffee, view and a chance to catch up on my journal writing.

Our next stop was at Pelorus Bridge, which is a beautiful area to swim, jump off rocks, hike or even camp for a few days. It was also one of the places used to film parts of The Hobbit.

Nelson turned out to be one of our favorite cities in New Zealand. It reminded us a lot of our favorite beach towns in California, and the people were incredibly friendly and hospitable as they have been the whole trip. Our hostel, the Tasman Bay Backpackers was great, and even had free delicious chocolate pudding (which seems to be British for chocolate cake with hot fudge) and ice cream in the evening.

In Nelson, we had to stock up on food and supplies for our trek in the Abel Tasman National Park, but after that we were able to enjoy walking around the town.

We had takeaway Japanese at this awesome little cart called Ninja Japanese Takeaway and then very delicious ice cream at Penguino, which combined my favorite things: penguins and gelato (the dark chocolate salted caramel was amazing…I’ve been waiting for someone to combine these two delicious flavors).

After refueling, we drove the beautiful drive out to Tahunanui Beach, and enjoyed walking way out onto the vast beach at low tide. It was beautiful and incredibly enjoyable.

It definitely made us miss our pup and wished she was with us chasing her tennis ball. She would have loved it.

On our walk back to the car we found these awesome swings that you could swing ridiculously high on…so much fun!

Near the beach, there is a great pizza place called Hot Rock Pizza that we enjoyed for dinner. Hello, chicken, brie, and cheese gluten free pizza and lamb pizza. Both were unique and very tasty.

The rest of the evening was spent back at the hostel packing, preparing and eating more dessert in the form of free chocolate pudding and ice cream.

I mean we were about to go into the wilderness for four days to hike 55 kilometers…might as well feed ourselves well before we set out!