Nelson

Initially I thought I wouldn’t bother writing anything in particular about Nelson. Then I changed my mind. I have been back here for a week since I finished walking the Heaphy Track and although nothing particularly interesting has happened in that time, I think the place deserves a mention, both on its own merits and also for claiming a week of my life.

I have stayed here a bit longer than I originally thought, as I have a bit of a sore foot after the exertions of my walk and want to have it checked out by a podiatrist before embarking on my next major tramp. Because of the Christmas and New Year holidays I can’t do this until 4^th January at the earliest. I just know he’s going to tell me it’s an age thing. Darn it.

It’s not a bad place to be stuck. I am in a cosy and homely backpackers’ hostel, just 5 minutes walk from the main city.

Tasman Bay Backpackers

The hostel is full over the Christmas and New Year period; mainly with young Europeans. The resident population changes gradually over the days, as people leave and arrive.  Some people stay a night or two and others stay longer; some leave, then come back again after a few days away. For the first time since I left home I have access to a kitchen and get to go to a supermarket and buy and cook my own food. The communal kitchen gets pretty busy, but everyone is very polite and we move around each other in a kind of dance, reaching for pots and pans and access to the cookers: ‘Excuse me, but could I just get in that cupboard?’ ‘Do you mind if I use that knife after you?’ ‘Is it Ok if I just move your pan over here?’

Kitchen

At 8.30 every evening free chocolate pudding and ice-cream is served and the residents form an orderly, but expectant queue at the kitchen door as the conversation revolves around quality of tonight’s pudding. Those of us who have been here for a few days know that although the recipe is always the same, the end result varies. Sometimes it is gloopy, sometimes solid and sometimes… just heavenly.

Chocolate pudding queue

New Zealand music plays from the speakers in the lounge and in the evenings the sofas are occupied by people reading, chatting and using computers.

Lounge

I am in a dorm room for 6 people and over the days people come and go. To begin with it’s all girls, then it gradually morphs and becomes a mixture of girls and boys and finally last night it is all boys and me. 3 new kiwi lads move in and dump their stuff, then don't reappear until 5 in the morning. I thought I had woken up in Snoresville-on-Sea, instead of Nelson.  Rather uncharitably I open all the curtains and windows and close the door none-too-quietly when I go out at 10am. 

As a bit of history about the place (courtesy of Wikapeadia and the town museum) I can say that the original European settlement of Nelson was planned by the New Zealand Company in London. They intended to buy 200, 000 acres of land cheaply from the Maori, which they planned to divide into one thousand lots and sell to intending settlers. The first European settlers landed here from England in 1842. Nelson received its name in honour of Admiral Horatio Nelson and many of the roads and public areas around the city are named after people and ships associated with the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The site of the settlement was chosen because it had a natural harbour protected by a 13km boulder bank. But unfortunately the area did not have the amount of suitable arable land the company had planned on and within a year settlers began leaving and by 1846 twenty five percent of the original 1000 or so immigrants had moved away. The pressure to find more arable land became intense and resulted in disagreements and fighting with Maori.

Nowadays the city and surrounding suburbs are clean, tidy and affluent-looking and easy to walk or cycle around, as they are laid out as a grid on the flat land between the sea and the surrounding hills. In and around the city there are many parks and open spaces. Blue and white agapanthus are blooming in gardens and along the sides of roads and the Pohutukawa trees are covered in red flowers.

Queen’s Gardens

Agapanthus

Pohutukawa tree

From a park at the edge of the city there is a walk to the top of a hill which gives a 360 view. The city is laid out below, with the waterfront to the right and the boulder bank visible just off-shore.

Views of Nelson

In the opposite direction the Maitai valley leads back into the hills.

Maitai valley

Down in the city the streets are wide, quiet and lined with trees.

Typical suburban street

There are many historic houses, which are very cutesy and in contrast ultra-modern houses dot the surrounding hills.

Restored settlers’ houses in South Street

Old-style houses

Modern houses on a hill

A modern cathedral sits on a mound looking towards the ocean from the end of the main shopping street.

Cathedral

Trafalgar Street

After New Year there is jazz festival in and around the city and as I wander around music comes out of restaurants and squares. I stumble cross this group playing in a shopping centre and sit and watch them for a while. A couple get up from the audience and dance a very proficient rhumba.

Jazz in the shopping centre

One day I borrow a bicycle from the hostel and cycle 12km along the coast to the east of the city to the end of the boulder bank, where the cliffs start.

Boulder bank beach

From here there is a path which goes steeply uphill, with far-reaching views back towards Nelson and across the bay to the Able Tasman National Park.

View towards Nelson

Self-portrait on a hill

I am surprised as I realise there is more potential for me to feel lonely here in New Zealand than in Asia. Perhaps it is because people’s lives in New Zealand are more recognisable than those in Asia. In Asia I was an observer of everyday things that bore little resemblance to my own life. Here people’s lives and the surroundings are familiar and maybe this highlights how far from home and family and friends I am. Or maybe it is because of living in a hostel and being aware of the transitory nature of relationships here. I have lots of pleasant conversations that include the same ingredients, but don’t go much beyond, ‘Where are you from?’ ‘How long are long here for?’ ‘Where are you planning to go next?’ etc. Or maybe it is just that I have been in Nelson too long, without any specific focus. It’s not a problem at the moment, but I am aware of loneliness possibly lying in wait, just around the corner, and I might bump into him if I don't keep a look out for him.