Following Christmas week in Abel Tasman, our next stop was an hour away in Nelson. Nelson is known as an artsy town, full of craft beers and a good food scene. Driving in, it felt like a tiny San Francisco in some ways - with a population of ~50k.
Our airbnb for three nights is up a hill overlooking the port of Nelson. We have two rooms in a private house, shared with the owners Candy and Charlie. Besides the amazing views, it's a wonderful space that we instantly loved. This is our second time in a private family shared home situation, the last time was March in Levin, NZ.
Airbnb Aside
You can certainly classify us as airbnb power users. Since traveling we've stayed at 35+ different airbnb's. An epiphany on airbnb when booking:
Our best experiences have absolutely been when the airbnb is owned by an individual vs a larger property manager. It is obvious from the bookings and comments when they glow about the hosts. We've certainly found some gems (like this one), but it's been the amazing people we've met and chatted with that make the experience so rewarding. This absolutely factors into our bookings.
Summer School
After Christmas week, we're using our time in Nelson to rev up summer school. Our plan is to spend time each day with the girls, continuing in the way we had during our trip prior to NZ. With some new workbooks and a star reward system, (the girls can earn 'screen-time') it kicked off with a good couple of sessions.
Restaurants
Since arriving in NZ in March, we've done very little eating out. This has been a combination of enjoying being back in the kitchen cooking, a bit of restaurant fatigue after traveling for the year and Queenstown largely being populated with tourist restaurants that we're not so interested in. At our stay here in Nelson and our upcoming two nights in Wellington (we're in a hotel), we do not have access to a kitchen. They girls are excited for a change up. Good thing too, as Nelson and Wellington are know for having a solid local restaurant scene. Our first night plan was for Indian, but the couple spots we found were closed for an extended Christmas/Boxing Day holiday. We ended up at a tasty Vietnamese restaurant we all enjoyed. It prompted a long discussion on the delicious food we ate during our 3 weeks in Vietnam. Returning to our airbnb, Candy the owner asked Sadie what she ate. Sadie's reply, "eggplant and tofu which was delicious" was met with a surprised look.
Central Nelson
We are in a residential area, just five minutes from downtown. The main church is located on the hill above town; it was a good place to start exploring.
It was Sunday and we arrived at the end of the Sunday service, joining in as they sang "Joy to the World". Afterward, we walked around the church to see about 50 Christmas trees which had been decorated by local businesses and community groups.
Running with Matt
I broke away from the girls to meet up with Matt for a run. We had met Matt and his family five months ago at the playground in Queenstown. Matt and his wife run an online running business, traveling the world as permanent nomads with their two children. They move around to a different location in the world every 2-3 months (pre-covid). They set up shop here in Nelson sitting tight in NZ while the covid situation evolved. Matt and I have stayed in touch discussing our visa situations periodically. When our road trip plans put us in Nelson, I got in touch.
For some perspective on Matt - he's an ultra marathoner. Frequently running races of 100 miles in length. He runs 7 days a week and today was a 'light day' when I joined him. He'd already run 5 miles in the morning and I was joining him for an 8 mile run. Holy smokes!
He picked a route along the water. I typically don't pay much attention to my pace, but running with Matt I was curious what pace we would keep. We did 8 miles at a 7:20min clip; chatting the whole way through. Lots of fun discussion around life decisions, traveling, nomadic life, etc. In a funny coincidence, he worked at the same financial firm as my college buddy, Alex. I of course snapped a running photo for my running album I've kept since our travels began.
After our run, we each went home to clean up and we met up at a playground with the families for an hour before dinner.
Coffee Shop
While I was off running, Sarah and the girls took a 20min walk along the water to Sublime Coffee and did a school session.
After our playground meetup with Matt and family, we headed into town for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.
Nightcap
Returning to our airbnb, our hosts Candy & Charlie were enjoying a beer on their deck and invited us out to join them. The adults chatted while the girls wrote in their journals and colored on the oversized bean bags.
That's a wrap on our first two days/nights in Nelson. One more to go before we board a ferry and start our summer adventures on the North Island!
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