After spending a month and a half in Christchurch, mostly in the small harbor town of Lyttelton, I started to get a bit antsy. After all, I came all this way to experience New Zealand as well as carry out my research projects, but so far I had been living within about a 4 mile radius. In a stroke of good fortune, I met a fellow Golden State Warriors fan (my hometown basketball team) on the bus one day, and he invited me to join him and his cousin on a weekend trip up to their hometown.
Nelson, New Zealand is on the tip of the South Island of New Zealand, but the geographical center of New Zealand as a country. It borders the famous coastal Abel Tasman National Park, mountainous Kahurangi National Park, Golden Bay beaches, and breathtaking Marlborough Sounds.
Nelson is known for it’s many artists and giant sculptures that are peppered throughout the area. While in Nelson, I saw some incredible gardens, including the Chinese and Japanese gardens. We took a day to drive around the different National Parks and explore some of the beaches, which had silky soft sand. One of the most spectacular things I saw was the crystal clear, electric blue waters of the Te Waikoropupu Springs.
From Nelson, they drove me to Picton, the cute coastal town where I caught a ferry to Wellington on the North Island.
