Nelson Day

Nelson Market Stall

Busiest Stall

Alison Gygax from Birds Ferry Lodge warned us not to miss the Saturday market in Nelson and since we are great supporters of our local Toronto markets we set our alarm for 6 a.m. so that we could make the drive and arrive as close to 8 a.m. as possible. We remember the layout of this prosperous town well from our last visit so find a parking spot readily on a main street.

Locals with their recycled shopping bags lead us straight to the heart of the market. By NZ standards this market is sizeable but nevertheless we are surprised by the number of stands that are selling items other than food e.g. clothes, soap, jewelry, cosmetics and even old tools – the busiest stall of all. We are here for the food so we cruise the entire area before making a few judicious purchases such as strawberries, local cheeses, smoked salmon pate, smoked fish and a few vegetables for dinner. Returning to our car we watch as a group of school children busk for money to repair their playground damaged by a truck that crashed into it! The supervising teacher is grateful for a donation and urges us to buy a raffle ticket too.

Singing for a New Playground

We’re also taking advantage of an in-town day to get haircuts, and a pedicure (me) as the weather is warming up, and we are soon heading to the North Island where the temperatures will rise in the coming weeks. There is very little evidence of Christmas, even in this upmarket town. It just amazes us how the Kiwis seem to keep this holiday in perspective. We appreciate this low key approach though admittedly we are not reading newspapers or watching TV so our exposure to the media hype has been limited. But we’re certainly not hearing Christmas carols yet though we’ve seen a few performances of Handel’s Messiah advertised. We meet one lady who tells us she is praying for a very hot day. We can’t get over this, having never gone south at Christmas time before it seems a bit surreal. In spite of the lead up to Christmas, Nelson continues to have early closing on Saturdays so the town starts shutting down around 1:30 p.m. Unbelievable but admirable, it seems that family and leisure time is more important that materialism here.
We walk along the river and through Queen’s Park taking time to really smell the roses. We feel could be in any of a number of parks in the UK. The trees are splendid so we photograph a few interesting specimens of cyprus and redwood then sit on a bench listening to the fountain and the birdsong.

Boat Shed Cafe

Flowers and Fishbone Chairs

We have reservations at The Boat Shed Cafe just outside town, another Alison recommendation, so we head off early as I’m getting very sleepy having arisen so early to make the market. The Boat Shed Cafe is our idea of a perfect restaurant, perched out over the water just outside town, excellent food, relaxed atmosphere, friendly service, and just the right touches - beautiful  and varied bouquets of flowers on the counter and tables and clever fishbone patterned chairs. I enjoy the goat cheese and beetroot salad while Duncan has the scallops in citrus butter sauce as entrees, for the main course we share a flounder in a brown butter caper sauce and sample two different desserts, chocolate mousse and Eton mess. Naturally we can’t pass up the Sauvignon Blanc, one of Duncan’s brother’s favourite labels – Neudorf, a local Nelson vineyard. Cheers from the Boat Shed Cafe! Later we found out  from our B & B hosts that residents of Picton experienced an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 felt as far as Nelson, but we were oblivious.