Kaiteriteri Beach, Nelson, New Zealand

Havelock Harbour

Left the vineyards on Highway 6, heading for Nelson. Road travelled through rural countryside first, with lots of sheep, cattle and some deer, but all against a backdrop of mountains. Paused at Havelock, to wander round the harbour. Havelock is at the end of one of the many inlets that form the Marlborough Sounds and is a centre both for pleasure boating and mussel fishing (it's the Greenshell Mussel Capital of the World). Missed a trick here as, unbeknown the John, Ernest Rutherford went to school in Havelock and there is a memorial to him in the town, which we didn't see.

South Street, Nelson

From Havelock, the road climbed up the Pelorus river valley, over the Rai Saddle and down through forests to the coast on a very steep and twisty road. Drove along the coast and paused in Nelson to look at the Cathedral  (reputedly, but not obviously, art deco in style) and the quaint workers cottages in South Street, billed as the oldest fully intact street in NZ. John phoned the iSite to ask where there was a memorial to Ernest Rutherford, NZ's only Nobel Prize winner, to be told that we'd missed the one in Havelock but that the main one is in Brightwater, just outside Nelson. Added this to our route.

Ernest Rutherford Memorial

After Nelson, we had lunch with Betty Williamson, an old family friend of Aenea's who lives in Richmond, a town just outside Nelson. We had a delightful visit with Betty and it was super to see her two daughters, Fiona and Heather, who called in to say hello. From Richmond we took a detour to Brightwater, to view the aforementioned memorial to Ernest Rutherford. This was in the form of a spiral, with a sequence of information boards, detailing his life and works.

Kaiteriteri Beach

 From Brightwater we rejoined the highway and made our way to Kaiterteri. Checked in to our B&B and were disappointed to find that the private boat trip I had provisionally arranged with the B&B owner was no longer available, since the owners of the B&B had gone away unexpectedly, leaving another couple to hold the fort for them. We were, however,  able to book a trip with the Sea Shuttle, one of several companies that operate water taxis from Kaiteriteri into the Abel Tasman National Park. Dinner in the Beached Whale, with a background of rugby on the TV. (New Zealanders really like their rugby.)