Monday - history and bendy roads

Today started with a gathering at 8.45 am for a drive back to the north side of Nelson for a visit to the Founders Heritage Park. This is a wonderful place, a bit like Blists Hill in the UK, where there is a gathering of old buildings from the area. Laid out on streets in the park, the buldings have mainly been moved from their original sites in Nelson and either housed collections of items to do with that building, or were artists studios. Sadly it was Monday, and the park had opened especially early for us, so very few of the artists were in residence.

There was a bakers, a newspaper printer, a cobblers, etc. plus an old aircraft and lots of information about the port of Nelson. There was also a brewery on site, but no one seemed to be sampling their wares. 

After 2 hours there we moved on and drove through the Moutere Valley to our lunch reservation. Much hilarity was had when we got lost, then were rescued by Steve and Rob, who then promptly got lost themselves. It was not helped by us flashing them with the windscreen washer, and indicating turns with the windscreen wipers!

Lunch was at the Riverside Cafe (and community), a lovely spot close to Lower Moutere. There was a cactus garden, a bonsai garden, an interesting menu and a working artist and gallery next door.

Mick and Rob swopped passenger places for the afternoon, so I and Rob drove nice and steadily over Takaka Hill (a steep climb and descent with lots of hills and bends, the descent reminded me of Monaco but much bigger) while Steve and Mick were free to drive much faster in Steve's TR250.

We stopped at the lookout at the top of the hill, then carried on down into Takaka. After ice creams, wondering around the town, and getting a bit of shopping, we returned to our usual cars and carried on into Collingwood. Tonight we are going to eat in the Collingwood Tavern, next door to where most people are staying. As we booked very late we are in an apartment at the Innlet Hostel a few kms further north, but shall drive in to join them all tonight.