NO CHANGE IN NELSON

BRITISH SETTLERS LANDING IN NELSON

Day 6-Was it a Greek philosopher or a Christian saint who said-"You can't step into the same river twice?" My second arrival in Nelson proved it not to be the case. Everything I liked about it the first time in (I think)2004 delighted me again and if there was any change it seemed to be for the better.
Its smarter suburbs are terraced down the hillside backing the city(houses fetch NZ$1m+ in the best streets and its centre is small and compact. It is lively rather than busy. Not only do motorists(and even cyclists) give way to you on zebra crossings but they do so voluntarily even if you intend crossing the large "traffic calmers"(England) "speed bumps"(Australia). Parking is easy,even with a campervan and free within a few streets of the central grid. It should be an ideal university town but is mostly served in this regard by what in Melbourne we would call a TAFE (technical and further education) college-at least its graduates are likely to get a job


It was founded and populated in the 1840s by staunch Anglicans and its many striking churches and commanding Christ Church cathedral testify to the settlement's success in that regard. Of special interest to me was the first school,founded by Bishop Selwyn after whom the university college I attended was named.
The rugby matches played here were at the 'minnow' level but they caused the citizens to be no less excited and welcoming of foreigners as those in the larger cities.







Many cafes and shops even displayed welcoming posters in the languages of visiting teams and spectators from Russia, Italy, USA and Australia (plus those ubiquitous Irish-has there been another potato blight? or is it not the English's fault this time? Maybe that well known "Celto-file" Thomas keneally will write another book about the GFC Emigrants)
Shop keepers told me they were doing a brisk trade and one delightful lady who said I was not fat but just more cuddly, "sold" me a pair of "stretch" jeans(I left mine hanging behind my bedroom door) and had them shortened in an hour-no extra charge and no exploited Vietnamese seamstresses in the back room either. The toy shop had excellent 1000 piece jigsaws that were discounted and the exchange rate makes things really cheap for Australians.
No kebab shops here-real German style wurst(and Sauerkraut) stall on one street corner opposite another selling hot spuds. No veils, hejabs or mosques in obvious sight. Seems I got out of Wellington just in time as controversy has broken out about the display by an Anglican clergyman of an Icon style painting of a fair haired All Black, which proves that if Christ came again in NZ he would definitely make the team. It's quite sure that win or lose a tsunami of prayers will be released after the final whistle of the tournament.
At the museum, a lady with Maori face tattooing answered my question about the large horn being blown before each game by a Maori warrior and she demonstrated by blowing on a smaller one.The lady on the desk was a keen researcher on my behalf in search of out of copyright and inexpensive(Canberra war museum charges almost $300 per copy) photos of first world war soldiers(one Australian preferably with Light Horse emu-feathered hat and British Tommy in tin hat(A sapper) and a military nurse and female ambulance driver, to represent the heros and heroines of my first novel in a cover collage.She found some leads I may be able to follow up in Christchurch as the museum has just reopend after the earthquake( they had another tremor last week??)



The local arts and crafts festival combines with the blossoming of some luscious trees. Colourful strands of knitted woolen patterns are wrapped around trees, coat a garden bench and envelop a water fountain.


Even the usually grim war memorial is centred in a beautiful floral display.Its McDonalds is the largest and cleanest I have experienced. A chap with a deformed arm works from 9-6 and leaves nothing to chance with respect to table mess and dropped packaging-it was always spotless and they are much more generous with free wI-fI time than I found with Starbucks in Barcelona and Berlin.
To cap it all-the pubs serve Monteith's Black ale on tap!! Need I say more about this veritable Eden at the far side of the world.
Off to Hanmer springs, alpine cosseting and healing center,tomorrow to get to grips with my excessively, self-indulgently cuddly body.