We checked out the city center, including the shop of Jens Hanssen who made the rings for the Lord Of The Rings movies. They used a variety of models for shooting, varying in size for various angles and perspectives. The largest model is in the shop and is shown on request (it's about 15cm in diameter):
For dinner we went to an Italian place called "When In Rome". The food was delicious, green mussels in tomato sauce as starters and then Simone had a pizza and I had homemade spaghetti with prosciutto and different kinds of mushrooms. We left full and satisfied.
We had nothing prebooked for today, so when we got home last night we looked at interesting things to check out and came across Ngarua Caves, about half an hour west of Nelson. These are natural limestone caves and they have tours every hour on the hour for $15. Driving via bendy mountain roads again we arrived there just before 11am, in time for the tour.
They also had bones from the now extinct moa. The birds fell through one of the openings and either succumbed to their injuries or starved to death. One of the skeletons has been carbon dated to 24,980 years old.
This is the hutch from which you emerge, the cave has separate entry and exit. Close to the exit is a field that apparently was used to shoot scenes for the Hobbit.
In the shop I noticed some photos of a split rock that looked familiar, and upon googling I found it's the Split Apple Rock, which was only half an hour away. So there was our second destination for the day.
Getting to it proved a little more difficult, with a steep 15 minute hike required to get from the carpark on top of a mountain down to the beach.
So this is what I recognised it from:
Unfortunately you can't get that close unless you swim to it or are on a boat. But the beach was very nice and secluded.
Simone wanted to check out some local art by artist Betty Salter, after seeing a brochure. Again, it was a 30 minute drive. Betty has a lot of paintings on show in her shed and she uses many different media, including pencil, charcoal, water colour, oils and pastels. Below is an example, she has painted many border collies, one painting in pencil looked just fantastic. It was a commission though and I couldn't find it on her website. Betty was kind enough to open her shed for us so we could browse the paintings and postcards she has for sale.
After Simone purchased some postcards, we left and on a whim Simone wanted to check out the World of WearableArt and Classic Cars. But the entry price of $22 was too high for me to justify, so I waited while Simone perused.
By the time we moved on, it was almost time for dinner so we decided to check out Nelson's number 1 restaurant according to Tripadvisor - Kraut's. Yes it's a German restaurant. Thankfully, not one that features constant yodeling music or dirndl-clad waitresses. It is a very contemporary restaurant/bar with pleasing background music and ambience.
We shared a mixed salad as a starter and then Simone had the Jaegerschnitzel while I had the pork shank, with spaetzle on the side. It was HUGE!!! The crackling on it was one of the best I've had, in fact both Simone and I could not fault any of the dishes. Yum! We shared an apple strudel with ice cream for dessert.
Tomorrow we cross over to the north island, if the ferry works. It's been in the news as being broken two days after entering service....ahem.
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