A slow mooch around Nelson

I worked out my driving distances for my route down the South Island last night –not too much on any one day but enough to have another slow mainly walking about day today.

My Dutch host had breakfast ready for me at 9 am including a ginger, lemon and manuka honey drink to help me resist any travel bugs. Paulina offers listening therapy in her grass roofed studio. Earlier I’d had my own version from the dawn chorus which has some similar tones to that in England as well as its own unique NZ bird song.

My first visit of the day was to the World of Wearableart, WOW, a combination of art and the human form that started in Nelson and has become a national and international phenomenon. It was all new to me –a stunning exhibition of some static pieces and about 20 other on a revolving stage complete with music and lights. The film of entries to the recent competition was well worth watching –most of the artists are from the Nelson region but other are foreign from UK, Japan, Thailand etc. Lots of recycled, natural and inspiration related materials are used in the life sized ‘clothes’ . No photos are allowed in the WOW museum but next door in the classic car museum there are a few examples but none of these match the splendour of those in WOW. I was told that the classic cars were collected together to appeal to those who preferred cars to bras!!

 

Also displayed is one of the several rings made for the film Lord of the Rings by Jens Hanson, a local jeweller. Later I found his studio and had some serious retail therapy.

From the WOW I followed the map to a local artist studio only to find that the high tide meant it was inaccessible by car -this is truly living on the beach.

 

Several of the other studios are close to the Cathedral which is built from Takaka marble where I shall be staying for a few days when I leave here tomorrow. I stopped to look at the city's oldest street: well preserved houses, shame about the cars.  Finally I found the organic store to replenish my stock of camomile tea bags, toothpaste and shampoo –it had lots of adverts for yoga, massage, poetry readings and spinning and felting workshops. Maybe I could do a house swap here for a few weeks one summer …