Today we decided to take it easy and just check out some of the various areas around Nelson. We slept in, and took a leisurely stroll over to Alioke Eatery which is about a five minute walk from the house we are renting.
We chose Alioke Eatery strictly based on it's proximity to us, and didn't really expect much from the food - but man were we in for a pleasant surprise. The cafe was excellent! Everything we got was top notch - especially the fresh baked Raspberry & White Chocolate muffin, and the Waffle (which had the most incredible taste - almost as if there were little Carmel or butterscotch chunks in the batter for the waffle . . . mmmm). Anyway we were thrilled with the place, and there is even a little playground right outside - so Reef was having fun on that while we waited for our food (we didn't trust River on it unsupervised as it is fairly close to the road).
After breakfast we set out to see some different areas around Nelson. First we checked out Todd's Valley - a pretty little valley less than 10 minutes from downtown Nelson. The place has a rural feel, and sort of reminded us of a smaller version of Topanga Canyon. From there we drove on to Cable Bay another 5 minutes up the road.
Cable bay is a much larger valley than Todd's valley, and is on the Makai side of the road, where Todd's Valley is on the Mauka side of the highway. A little over a mile off the highway, and down the Cable Bay road we pulled into Cable Bay Adventure Park. The Adventure Park has a cafe where we grabbed some coffees and Reef got an ice cream cone. All were good - but the main purpose of our stop was to see the area, as the Cable Bay Adventure park includes ATV, Mountain Biking, a rock climbing wall, and a giant single ride zipline ("zip wire" as they call it) that looks like a chairlift.
The area was beautiful, and has a really nice steam running through the property. The folks at the Adventure Center said we were welcome to go walk around - so off we went down the gravel road to check out the two Highland Cows!
The property was sold in December 2017 to national champion Multisport athletes - Richard & Elina Ussar, who appear to be focused on improving the operations, reforesting with native plants, and creating public access - all of which is awesome. Nonetheless, I was kicking myself throughout the entire visit to the site because a year before the Ussars bought it I had seen the property on offer and had gone a bit down the road with a NZ real estate agent, kicking the tires and seeing what it might look like for Skyline to buy the 1000 acre property and convert it into our first international location. But clearly the new owners are doing a great job, and it was fun to see the area in person finally.
After checking out the stream, the cows, and the area in general we hopped back in the car and kept on driving down Cable Bay Road for another 7 km until we reached the ocean. The road got pretty narrow enroute to the bay, so we were surprised when we arrived at the shore and found the place to be totally packed with people. Clearly Cable Bay is a popular beach to visit. It's fairly rocky, much more so than many other beaches in the area, but it does have a remote and wild feel to it. There is a large estuary just inland of the shoreline where several sailboats are mored. The ocean at Cable Bay looks like it would be a great place to go explore on a sea kayak.
After a look around we headed back into Nelson - our destination . . . the Center of New Zealand. The Center of New Zealand is located on top of Botanical Hill, in a park area called the Botanical Reserve. In order to reach the base of the trail, which leads up the hill you cross an open playing field, which just so happens to be the location of the first ever Rugby match in New Zealand. The match was organized by Charles Monro based upon the games he had played in England and took place on May 14, 1870 between Nelson College and Nelson Rugby Football Club. The rest, of course, is history.
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