Sunshine and Laughs in Nelson (Feb. 13-15)

Having been in NZ about a month by now, all we keep hearing from people, whether they’re Kiwis or foreigners, is that we need to get to the South Island, as that’s where all the good stuff, especially scenery, is located. In our experience, we have to say that the North Island has hardly been an ordeal, nor hard on the eyes. However, given that the S. Island is given to colder temperatures than the N. Island is in the coming months, and there are certain things you can do there only in summer and fall, we gotta admit that it makes sense to get there sooner rather than later. Though we’ll be in NZ until December, NZ seems to get a relatively late summer, so this will be the only true summer we’ll get here. Best to live it up while you can.

In that spirit, we took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. Though the ferry takes you from the N. to S. Island, it’s actually an east to west trip, as Wellington is located a bit north of Picton. That blew our minds, briefly; you are encouraged to look it up as well. In rough weather, the crossing can be among the roughest in the world, but on the day we made the trip, it was “flat as”, and we had a smooth ride. It’s a neat ride, as the ferry approaches Picton through a narrow channel between some of the thousands of islands that make up the Marlborough Sounds region of the S. Island. Unfortunately, Becky had the camera that day, so no pictures. Perhaps on our way back.

After a quick visit to tiny Picton, we were on our way to Nelson, home of our next Couchsurfing host, Andrew, who came recommended to us by our last Couchsurfer, George. Andrew is quite a remarkable guy himself, as he is part Maori, and has had a host of interesting and varied jobs over the past few decades. As the first person we’ve really conversed with who was part Maori, we’ve had some interesting chats with him too. It’s been a really good Couchsurfing experience, meeting someone who comes from a different cultural background.

Our host, Andrew

From our conversations with him, we’ve gathered that he’s been a policeman, carver of Maori artifacts, security consultant, and now works as a student advisor at an institute in Nelson. It’s quite a resume, and he’s a really interesting guy to talk to. You can tell that he’s a really thoughtful person who’s given thought to his beliefs and what he says. There’s a bit of intensity to him too, but he’s a really good-natured guy who’s also generous, as he couldn’t have been nicer in sharing his house with us and allowing us to come and go as we needed. He even offered to let us use his house over the weekend while he was away in Christchurch, but we had already booked a sailing trip in Abel Tasman, or we would’ve probably taken the offer. After a bunch of weeks of travel, it’s really nice to be able to stay at one place for awhile, especially if you can do it without having to stay in a hostel. Thus we dig the Couchsurfing and wwoofing.

The Christchurch Cathedral in Nelson

A funny thing in Nelson has been that we’ve again managed to run into Suzanne, a Danish Couchsurfer who was surfing Matt and Stu’s couch in Whangarei in the Northland at the same time we were several weeks ago. We were also in Paihia at the same time and ran into her there, and apparently she was at the same hostel in Rotorua at about the same time we were there, but we didn’t see her there somehow. We didn’t really plan to run into her all these times, NZ Couchsurfing just isn’t a huge world, I guess. We’ve spent a bunch of time with her, and have gotten on with her quite well, and she took us to her laughing yoga session at a house in Nelson one night.

Enjoying some time at Andrew's with Suzanne

Laughing yoga is an interesting experience. Following the maxim that laughter is the best
medicine and that preventive medicine is better, laughing yoga practitioners basically make themselves laugh in large groups in a variety of exercises. It’s a bit odd, especially at first, but once people get into the swing of it, the ‘fake laughter’ tends to make you actually laugh, and it kind of goes from there. We did it for about a half hour, and as Suzanne would say, it was good fun. Like most yoga, it did make us feel better afterwards, and although I probably wouldn’t do it on a regular basis, it was an interesting experience. According to Suzanne, Denmark has a number of laughing clubs, and that she started one in Greenland for several months when she was there. I couldn’t possibly make this kind of thing up.

As for Nelson, we’ve really liked it here. It’s a good-sized town with a nice downtown area of shops and restaurants, is on the beach, has a good energy, and most importantly, seems to be the small brewery capital of NZ! Seriously, we’ve seen more microbreweries in Nelson than anywhere on the N. Island. Not sure what it is that attracts the microbrew-types here, but there must be something, as we visited several small brewery operations while we’ve been here. One of the original NZ microbreweries, MacCashin’s (now known as Mac’s) started in Nelson, so perhaps that explains it.

Enjoying a beer at Founder's Brewery

Our favorite was Lighthouse Brewery, where Dick, the owner/brewer/one-man show poured us several pints gratis on Friday morning, the day we left Nelson to visit Golden Bay and Farewell Spit. Probably the coolest part of Lighthouse was the small vehicle that Dick equips with kegs for festivals and such, pulling up to his site and dispensing beers from the trunk. Even better, I was able to score a pint glass, so all was right in the world that day. With bellies full of beer, we pulled out of Nelson, bound northward.

The "wee" van at Lighthouse Brewery