When Jetstar announced that they were flying to more cities in 2015 I was super excited! When they announced $9 fares to the new destinations I was in with a grin, within minutes I was on the phone to Kyle asking if he wanted to go to Nelson for a quick break. The $9 fares sold him on the trip so I locked it in.
I’ve always been hugely into travel and I always have at least two travel related goals for each year which are generally:
– Travel to one NEW place in NZ
– Travel to one NEW place Overseas
Whilst Nelson wasn’t actually a new travel destination for me (I’ve been once before, for half a day when I stayed in the Marlborough Sounds), I was excited to get away for a couple of days. From the time of booking the trip until the time we went was at least 6 months but it was still nice having a little mini break to look forward too.
We were only away for two nights but it was enough to get a feel for Nelson and have a quick explore around the town. I’d love to go back and explore the Abel Tasman on a longer trip.
We flew in to Nelson on a Thursday around lunchtime and flew out on the Saturday around 2pm which meant that we only actually had one full day in Nelson to explore. The first day we got a shuttle from the airport to our accommodation and dropped out bags off and went in search of some lunch. I googled a sushi store and got something to eat and then carried on into town and the information centre so we could find a bit more about what there was to do in Nelson.
I got super excited when I remembered that the Pics Peanut Butter factory was located in Nelson (yes, actually!), and even more excited when we discovered that they did free tours during the week. We decided we would go for a bike ride out to the factory (about 10km each way) using the bikes they had for hire at our Hostel. That was until I saw you had to pre-book the tours and when we went to book it, discovered that they were fully booked until exactly one week later! #sadface
Since we couldn’t go on the Pics Tour, we still decided to borrow the bikes and go for a ride and just see what we could see. We ended up finding a massive hill which we decided to head up and check out the view. I tell you what, that was a never ending hill and we ended up walking up most of it as our bikes had no gears!
After checking out the view from the top we headed back down the hill and then discovered the Japanese Gardens. The Japanese Gardens are so peaceful and I’d definitely recommend having a stroll around them next time you are in Nelson. From here we biked down to the port and had a good look around there before heading to the supermarket to pick up some bits and bobs for a picnic lunch.
We dropped the bikes back at the hostel and walked down the road to the Cathedral which is at the top end of town (opposite end from the port). The Nelson Cathedral isn’t what I was expecting when we were told there was a Cathedral however it was very pretty in a gothic kind of way. We spent a bit of time just chilling around here and then back at the hostel.
That afternoon and evening we decided to check out what movies were on and to go to the movies and then out to dinner before turning in for the night. We ended up seeing Grimsby (I’m a HUGE Borat fan, it’s my favourite movie EVER. Grimsby wasn’t as good as Borat and as always with Sacha Baron Cohen it was borderline offensive but just worked. I wouldn’t be in a rush to see it again but I did enjoy it and would watch it if it came on T.V).
The Saturday morning was the day of the Trolley Derby which conveniently happened to be just down the road from our hostel so we went and checked it out for a little while before grabbing Mexican for lunch and then making our way to the airport.
Have you been to Nelson before? What would you recommend doing there?