We live in a new era of travel. Whilst there is a travel bubble open between Australia and New Zealand, I still cannot fathom getting on a plane and going to a different country just yet. Luckily, New Zealand has dealt with the COVID-19 crisis well, and we’ve managed to keep those positive cases in managed isolation for the most part. This has meant, that the rest of the country is open to be explored by locals and Aussies alike. What this has also meant, is that Kiwis, are now thinking beyond the usual roadie to their favourite spot staying at their bach for a weekend away and being more creative with their travel ideas. After all, we can only really explore our backyard at the moment.

I usually take two holidays in a year. A winter getaway and a summer holiday. This year (2021), I set myself a challenge in going somewhere new in New Zealand. It can be very easy to quickly go back to your roots and go to your usual spots like Queenstown. I had my eyes on Nelson for a while, and well decided that now is better than never.

Challenge number two that formed was, how do I make this trip into a week long gig. What were my options? I didn’t want it to be too hectic, where I am going to 3-4 different cities in the span of a week, but at the same time, Nelson isn’t really a place where I can spend a full week. The latter is because whilst I love hiking, I’m not the best at camping, and cannot get myself to do one of New Zealand’s great walks, and camp along the way.  Ultimately, I decided that a total 3 nights was going to be enough for me, and then to try something new, I decided to drive to Picton (which is about an hour and a half’s drive from Nelson) and get on the ferry to Wellington.

Nelson, is a small town, very similar to Queenstown and Arrowtown. It’s got a small town centre, which isn’t very touristy. But the thing with Nelson is that, most of the spots that you want to hit are a bit of a drive away for example Abel Tasman.

Nelson is also perhaps, one of the drier towns in New Zealand. But be prepared, it does come with some heavy downpour. It isn’t great when that happens, but you are still able to do things in this weather if you don’t mind getting a bit wet. If you haven’t been to Nelson yet, I would definitely recommend the summer months for a visit rather than the winter.

One thing that I really liked about Nelson, was the amount of bicycle parking there is in the city centre. The traffic was relatively low the entire time I was there, and most people choose to either walk, or cycle around here. Being from Auckland, where traffic is really congested and bad, this was refreshing to see.

I’ll put another blog together, about planning your trip to Nelson, and what some of the activities are that you can get up to.

Until next time,

MiliG