Inefficient Globetrotting: Day 22: Nelson

Had another one of those days that's got me plum tuckered out-- I keep looking at the clock, hoping it's closer to a reasonable bed time (it's 7:40).

True to form, I did no research about Nelson before arriving last night, except to make a hostel reservation. Which I picked based on a carefully calculated balance between reviews on hostelworld.com and proximity to the bus station. Did I mention that our bus got in late last night because two people hadn't gotten back on at the right time at the end of our bathroom break and we had to turn back to get them? And then the bus driver took us the scenic route going into Nelson but there was construction that stopped traffic in both directions for about twenty minutes? Well anyway.

Woke up refreshed and ready to seize the day. First stop: the supermarket. Now that I'm all by my lonesome, eating out will be a rarity, if I ever do it at all. After the first few trips to the grocery, I've got my routine down pretty well and know what to look for and what the prices will be. Favorites from this trip: Camembert, butternut squash and kumara hummus (kumara = sweet potatoes), passion fruit-flavored everything. (While traveling through Italy, Anne and I ate fresh mozzarella every day.)

And then a stop by the public library (more free wifi, hooray!) before sitting in a park to eat some of my bounty. Dropped it off back home, grabbed my map of the city, and hit the road.

The map indicates that the "Centre of New Zealand" is not far from here, so I thought that would be a good place to start. It has a symbol of an eye on the map at that place, so I figured it would have a view. It did! The hill it's on also has many twisting paths, most of which will take you to the top, eventually.

(Taking a picture of this map was invaluable. Otherwise I would have been very confusing to see about 10 different signs pointing to the centre of NZ but in different directions at different points...)

What is the kauri tree? I followed signs there and found:

Anybody know or should I look it up? This one was planted in 1951 and is notable enough to have many signs pointing you there...

Views from the centre of NZ:

And then I continued down the other side. All of a sudden, I was alone. I love that about places like this. When the city ends, it ends. And then it's just nature. Well, landscaped nature anyway.

So I walked up and down and around a bunch more trails for several hours.

Then back to the hostel for a pit stop and to change shoes before heading off in the opposite direction. Towards the beach!

It was about three miles there, but what else am I doing with myself, so I walked. Through downtown Nelson, up to the highway that runs along the water, out to Tahunanui park. Along the beach, around the peninsula, accidentally crossed the channel and ended up on a golf course because the tide was so low I couldn't tell it was the body of water separating the peninsula.