Nelson

Monday 09/05/2011 – Tuesday 10/05/2011
Provisioned up, fuelled up and on our way after a quick check with the harbour master that all was clear for us to go. The Navy ship was leaving around 1400 so we decided to leave earlier than originally planned to get away before them and also one of the cement boats that was coming in to port.

We followed a large fishing boat out of the port and across the bar. Even on a calm day the swell on the bar was noticeable making for a sloppy sea.

The trip across the Karamea Bight was calm and uneventful and it was good to be on the move again after a week in port. We coasted along in sunshine on a sparkling blue sea while cloud hung over the plateau onshore. By sunset we were abeam the area where we had driven to a couple of days earlier.
Around 11 pm the moon set dropping into the Tasman sea then lights of Kahurangi Point, Cape Farewell and Farewell Spit kept us company through the dark night and also large pods of dolphins streaked through the water like torpedos streaming phosphorescent trails.
We were well down Tasman Bay by the time it got light and we decided to head straight for Nelson where we were soon tied up at the town marina.

Wednesday 11/05 – Monday 16/05/2011
The prime reason for coming to Nelson was to see if we could get the radar fixed. That turned out to be a shock. After talking to the Furuno agent they said that it was possibly the magnetron and to replace would be about $1200 but could not look at it until the following week. We found someone else who came and had a look at the unit and identified the problem as a faulty circuit board in the display unit. Cost for new part ± $2000 plus installation etc. We swallowed hard and said okay – we really were quite keen to have the radar working properly however it seems that there was only one of these circuit boards available in New Zealand and it had been promised to someone else. It took until this morning to find this all out and with no hope of getting said part the electronics man put our unit back together again and returned it to the boat. We then decided that it was blowing rather fiercely and we would wait until tomorrow to leave here.

We had an enjoyable few days in Nelson, spending our time reacquainting ourselves with the world of shops, farmers markets and art galleries and looking at the property press – this is still an area we might like to live in, if and when we move out of Auckland.


Trees in the city are a little different to what we have been used to..

 We also enjoyed catching up with Dennis and Marka who had brought Kuri to Nelson to do some work on her. Kuri is the boat that we travelled down the east coast to Stewart Island with. They had returned up the east coast and it was a shock to see their photos of Lyttelton after the earthquake. We had heard that damage was extensive and it was sad to see buildings we had seen that had just totally crumbled and collapsed.

Today we went walking along the Matai River which runs through town and followed it to a park which led to what is purported to be the Centre of New Zealand. We followed the signs and the track up the hill and arrived after a 15 minute climb at the spot which is apparently central between Cape Reinga in the north and Puysegur Point in the south. Not a very spectacular monument but the view over the city and Tasman Bay was pretty good.

Centre of NZ ??

There are still gale warnings out for most areas but we will head out of here tomorrow back into the Marlborough Sounds and wait for better conditions for crossing Cook Strait to Mana.