Day 6: Saturday, March 2, 2002
Exploring Nelson

Today we woke up to the sound of pouring rain. It was coming down in buckets. This was very sad because we'd been looking forward to the Nelson market, which was on Saturdays only from 8am to 1pm. By the time we'd gotten up and dressed it had eased a little, and I called down to the front desk to ask if they thought the market would still go on. She said it probably would but it would be limited. Since we'd come here to see it, we figured we'd see what was there.

Nelson crafts fair after the rain

By the time we got to the market at around 9:30, it was no longer raining and some people were setting up their booths. We walked through it and saw that about a third of it was food (fruit & veggies mostly plus some stalls with bread, sweets, jams, sausages and such), and the rest crafts. We'd been expecting to go crazy here, but there wasn't a lot that tempted us. Probably it was partly because we'd already seen so many crafts, and partly because the market wasn't really that big. There were 2 or 3 stalls with wood crafts, and perhaps we would have bought stuff at one of them if we'd not already bought so much wood stuff. Walendo did buy a stained glass hanging ornament to put in the window. Then we decided to go get breakfast at a cafe and then come back to see if any more stalls had set up.

Pomeroy's cafe, Nelson

We found a perfect cafe with outdoor seats on Trafalgar Street called Pomeroy's, opposite the place where we'd eaten dinner the night before (Cafe Affair). I was planning to have just a croissant, but they had bagels with cream cheese and lox, so I got that. They put hardly any cream cheese on it but they piled it with lox. It was pretty good. Walendo had Eggs Benedict and liked it a lot. By this time, the sun was out, the sky was clear, and it was getting quite hot. I'd worn a turtleneck and a fleece top over that, so I was boiling. We figured we'd go back to the hotel to change, but first we went into a wool crafts store right next to the cafe. I saw a beautiful black and purple sweater made of mostly merino wool with some possom fur mixed in, which is interesting. Possoms are real pests, so it's good that they've found a way to turn their fur into wool. It was very soft and light. I was too hot to try it on, though, and it wasn't that cheap, so I figured I'd think about it and come back later if I wanted to get it. She said she closed at 1pm, though, so we figured we should look in the other crafts shops before going back to the room, incase they closed early too.

Frommer's guide book gave a list of craft stores on Nile Street but didn't show where they were on the map, so we ended up going to the wrong end of Nile Street. We walked and walked and in the end found only one, which was closed. It would have been much better if they'd shown them on the map. By the time we realized how far off we were, we were getting closer to our hotel, so we decided to just walk back to the hotel, change clothes, and then drive back into the center of town to save time. I changed into a t-shirt and shorts (Walendo of course was already wearing that), and we headed back to town. We drove back into town, but it turned out we couldn't get a parking spot anywhere near the town center so we parked about as far away in the other direction as our hotel was. Oh well.

Walendo at Nelson crafts fair

First we went back to the market and although there were a few more booths, we didn't see much we wanted to buy. I was surprised that this market was relatively small. There were maybe 100 stalls, about 30 or so food, the rest crafts — not all that big. We'd decided to get our neighbors Casey and Steve a gift for bringing in our mail and watering the plants while we were away, and Walendo thought they might like those stained glass hanging things, so we went back to that booth and chose one for them. I hope they like it.

Walendo at Nelson McDonald's

McDonald's McCafe, Nelson

By now Walendo was hungry and, noting that he had yet to go to McDonalds in New Zealand, wanted to go to the one in Nelson, which was near where we wanted to go for the craft shops. He ate quickly (and happily), assessing the food as up to standards. One odd thing — this McDonalds had a McCafe in it, serving things like quiche and pastries. How strange. But a good thing. If they had stuff like that in the U.S. McDonalds, we could go there together. (I can't stand the regular fare.) After he ate, we walked along the right end of Nile street and found three or four shops of interest. There was a store selling all sorts of pottery, which was one of the few crafts we hadn't bought. Some of it was tempting, but we didn't buy any — too heavy and we don't really have the need. We did see some little signs made of clay with clever sayings. I was hoping I'd find one for Dad, but none really seemed right. One really made us laugh: "Sometimes I wake up grumpy, sometimes I just let her sleep." We thought of some friends that would be good for, but it seemed too mean. Another one: "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels." Walendo liked it, but he said he prefers to ignore that type of advice. We saw another nice wood shop but again, nothing too tempting. We also walked by a store selling fleece vests for NZ$30 (US$12), so Walendo got one that says he's on the staff of some kayak company. For some reason, he got a big kick out of that.

Ellen in Nelson wool craft shop

At this point it was getting close to 1pm, so I had to decide whether to go back to buy that sweater at the wool crafts shop. I decided to go back and try it on, knowing of course that going back meant I'd most likely buy it. It's so easy to justify here, since the quality is so good for the price, and I'll never be back here again, and I've been wanting to get new sweaters and so on and so on. (Never mind that I'd bought 4 other sweaters so far this trip.) We went back, I tried it on, and lo and behold, I decided to get it. I even eyed a really nice top, but finally had a smidge of will power and held the line at the sweater. After that, I felt like I'd been spending enough and didn't want to get much more.

Ellen packing up new bag with goodies we'd bought

We were back near the cafe where they had internet access, so we stopped to check email for about 45 minutes. I'd gotten more mail from my dad, who was travelling in Viet Nam — that was cool sending him email from New Zealand to Viet Nam. We also replied to the person who sent us such a nice note about our book. At this point, we wandered around the town some more and noticed that many of the stores were already closed and it was only mid-afternoon on a Saturday. How strange. We realized we needed to buy a bag to carry all the stuff we'd been buying in New Zealand, so we wandered around looking for a bag store that was open. We found one (oh, after we found a CD shop where we bought the CD of the music we'd heard in the restaurant in Queenstown) and they had a good sized bag for only NZ$40 (US$16), so we got it. The town seemed pretty dead by that time, so we went back to the room and used the afternoon to do some laundry at the hotel, read, and generally relax. We'd been on the go a lot over the last few days, so this felt nice. I also packed up the new bag with all the extra goodies we'd bought to make sure it would all fit. Fortunately, it did.

Broccoli Row restaurant

At about 5:30, we walked back into town, hoping to eat at Broccoli Row, which Frommer's Guide had recommended. When we got there, they said they didn't open until 7pm. We walked around the town for another 10-15 minutes, but again since everything was closed, this seemed silly, so we went back to the room for a while and read. A little after 7pm we went back to the restaurant and were seated. We were expecting a hearty vegetarian place with some seafood, but it turned out to be a mostly seafood restaurant with a few vegetarian options. There was a pretty limited menu, maybe about 7 main courses, which was surprising. The food was very fresh and well made, but my dish included things I didn't like so much so I ate only some of it. It was a nice place, but maybe not the best option for us. Then we went back to the Cafe Affair to get dessert, since I'd been eyeing the chocolate cake since the last time we were there. It was quite good. Walendo had the pear tart, which didn't taste like much.

Since we were there, we decided to check mail again quickly. Waiting for Walendo was some email from Russ saying that Libby had gotten into a fight with Knuffi and had hurt her. Russ said they were keeping Libby outside more now and she was barfing a lot. This really upset Walendo, both that Libby had been such a bad dog and because of his concern for her. Clearly she was upset that we were still away. All he wanted to do was get on a plane and come get her. I was pretty sad about it too. We walked back to the hotel with Walendo stewing in frustration. It wasn't practical for us to move our flights up, and we'd probably only be able to save a day. Walendo decided to call Russ tomorrow (it was too late at this point), so he called the AT&T international operator to find out how much it would cost to call the US from New Zealand tomorrow via a credit card or calling card. It was $15 for the first minute and $3 for every minute after that for a credit card call, slightly less for calling card. How absurd! Even the operator was surprised. Walendo had seen ads for calling cards to the US for 16 cents a minute being sold at the internet cafes, so we walked over to get one. We got there a little after 9:30pm and they were closing up, so we couldn't get one. How frustrating. But one guy suggested going to the Shell station, so we did. They sold them for 25 cents a minute, fine. We got a $15 "Yabba" card and read the instructions for making a call. At least we'd be able to call early tomorrow morning (at a reasonable rate), before going on the kayaking trip we had planned.

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