About 43 years ago, I set my sights on someday visiting Nelson New Zealand...sister city in my mind to Nelson British Columbia (my much loved home town)...and today I finally made it! This was generated by a very memorable presentation by a classmate in Grade 10, which I noted in an earlier blog entry. I'm not sure what I was hoping to find here, I just wanted to come here. What I found is a beautiful small city (bigger than "my" Nelson, but not by a whole lot), nestled on the Tasman Sea, with the Maitai River running through it - my Nelson only has the Kootenay River, but we call it a "the Lake" (the lake is actually further North). 
Both Nelsons are picturesque with lots of restored heritage buildings dating back to the 1800's. 
And with lovely green mountains surrounding them (although Nelson New Zealand's hills/mountains are pretty much bald (clear cut) or very obviously replanted. 
Both also serve as base camps for people accessing the many wonderful outdoor activities available in the surrounding areas. This Nelson is warmer, I think...I don't know for sure, but today it was predicted to be around 25, which is actually cooler than a typical summers day in my Nelson. There are other similarities too... a small airport on the waterfront, a cathedral up the hill not far from the city centre.
I was struck, as we explored this town, that two cities on opposite ends of the world would have been colonized pretty much simultaneously and essentially by the same colonizing power (Primarily Britain, but others as well, notably the Netherlands)....given the difficulties of travel in that era, the drive to explore, conquer and settle other parts of the world must have been incredibly strong for those small countries who saw themselves as running out of land.
We followed the suggested self guided walk through the city, and came upon a number of very familiar street names; Trafalgar, Stanley, Victoria, Richmond Ave, Shelbourne St., (yes the latter two are more familiar to Victoria... 
Then we followed the river walkway which has some (albeit minimal) similarity to the walk along the waterfront in my Nelson. 
Geoff captured these two herons sizing each other up before they threw themselves together...the fellow on the right, (or is that left?) was the eventual winner.
Then we drove up the windy road to our campground outside of town - a very familiar experience, except we're not in a tent this time.
After such a long wait to see this place, I'm very happy to FINALLY have made it here!
We are off to tramp in Able Tazman Park tomorrow for a couple of days. Should be something special as it's along the Tasman Sea shoreline.
2 comments:
Annemarie, we (Glenn, Kathy and I) are delighted that you were finally able to make that sentimental journey to Nelson (down under) and find so many remarkable similarities to Nelson (up above). We could just see you gushing with pleasure as you discovered the many familiar named side streets and the old style homes along the way. Wonderful experience. Hope you capped it off with a nice glass of wine when you arrived back at the campsite. (I still can't get over the empty propane tank in your campervan on your first morning of camping - in part, because I can well remember the difficulty I had in Parker Arizona many years ago when we needed a propane refill and couldn't find a station - also at breakfast time - which was most inconvenient). Keep trekking- have a great day tomorrow.
I think British lords got streets named after them everywhere....cities and towns, too!
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