19th & 20th December 2009
Yesterday morning we spent a pleasant hour walking around Nelson market with its colourful mixture of stalls selling everything from paintings to clothes, knives to food. We bought some fresh vegetables for our tea and some cakes for lunch.
Then we headed south to our next destination at Nelson Lakes. We had found a very small hostel with only 6 beds set on a farm near the Nelson Lakes National Park. We took the scenic route from Nelson and drove through acres and acres of tall pine trees which were obviously being grown for logging.
The weather closed in, so we decided it was time for a nice relaxing afternoon at the hostel which was delightful and had the added bonus of a log fire which was roaring nicely when we arrived.
After a relaxing Saturday we wanted to continue in the same vein for Sunday. We headed off to a short walk not far from the hostel which was formerly part of the Nelson railway. The railway was started in the late 1800s and still remained uncompleted in the 1930s, then in 1955 the whole endeavour was closed completely and the tracks that had been laid were ripped up. All that remains is a few bridge struts and the long tunnel that was hand drilled through the hard granite rock. It made for a pleasant walk through the bush though and we even saw a very friendly bush robbin who practically posed for photos.
We then continued on to Nelson Lakes and more specifically Lake Rotoiti, where the plan was to do some more walking alongside the lake. However, the weather was against us again with rain pouring down the hills. We sat and enjoyed the views over the lake before taking the dirt track up the side of the mountain to get some wonderful views over the entire lake.
Our next stop was the other lake which make up the park, Lake Rotoroa. This was extremely high with the water lapping at the jetty and clearly higher than normal along the shore. It was only set to get higher as the rain was still coming down, although there were blue skies overhead.
We decided to abandon our walking plans and head back to the hostel where a cup of tea and a good book were waiting.