Giving Nelson a Second Look

To settle any soon-to-develop suspicions: we are not moving to NZ. But that said, as we drive away from towns or regions of the country, we often discuss whether we could live there, what the pros and cons of living there would be, and what aspects of the place were compelling from a ‘real life concerns’ perspective. Though we’ve enjoyed most places we’ve visited in NZ, few have ranked high on the “let’s move here” scale. For us, Wanaka was the first town with high long term staying potential. The beautiful surroundings, the great central location, the nice size, etc. And it continued to be the front runner until our recent stop in Nelson (during which we took a couple days to hike in Nelson Lakes NP).

All in all, Nelson is one of the more ‘California-y’ places in NZ. It has a long, nice beach right next to town, there’s a relatively large downtown but not many tall buildings, and it’s surrounded by wine country and mountains. Also, Nelson-ers think of themselves as being at the forefront of craft beer culture in NZ, which we appreciate. There are at least a few really good restaurants, and all the cultural highlights of Wellington are just a day trip on the ferry away.

We headed to Nelson at first to catch the last day of the annual Jazz Fest, which was a blast. We watched a concert on a city corner downtown next to the cathedral park, then went to a park where four bands played all afternoon, then ended up in a brewery watching a bluesy group composed of four guitars, a bass, and a clarinet to pass the evening.

In our other couple days in town, we visited a winery, a couple of breweries, had a nice scenic beer at the yacht club, and visited the ‘Centre of NZ’. It’s a bit of an opportunistic title – this center is actually the center of the regional district of Nelson, which is itself the central most district in NZ. So I guess it’s a center of NZ – calling it the center is perhaps a bit of a stretch. But regardless, the Centre of NZ is perched atop a prominent hill that you reach via a half hour walk from the center of town. The path up was super busy – some of our fellow trail-walkers were tourists, some were locals, and some even looked like they were commuting (work clothes, ear buds, shoulder bag).

So while I imagine Nelson is not often on the itinerary of a typical 2 or 3 week ‘tour of NZ’ trip, we really enjoyed our few days here. (In fact, we found it way more interesting than many other places, e.g. Wellington, which we probably could have spent one fewer day at and not felt too sad.) If we had more time before having to head further north (to watch a rugby tournament!), we would have very happily spent it in and around Nelson.