Wednesday, 29 October 2025
We woke this morning to see that snow had fallen overnight on the mountains across Tasman Bay. THAT resulted in a very chilly breeze blowing down over Nelson, so it was cold, even though we had beautiful blue sky and brilliant sunshine.
Today, we finally got out of the house taking ourselves off to the Nelson Classic Car Museum. We have visited before but thought it was worth another look. The South Island of New Zealand certainly has some amazing car and motor vehicle collections with this being our fourth visit to a motoring collection in four weeks,
The museum here in Nelson may not be the largest we have visited (that award HAS to go to the museum at Wanaka) but with 150 cars on display it took us quite some time to wander through admiring them all. Opening with a shiny collection of Veterans, we made our way onto The Cat Cage (Jaguars!), Americana, Mercury Motors, 30s Luxury and vehicles synonymous with cinema, think Pink Cadillac and DeLorean. The Front Shed also housed a section telling the story of Nelson’s cars factory, where they assembled cars between 1965 and 1998.
Continuing into the Back Shed we made our way through roadsters, hot hatches, racing cars, Rovers (in a tribute to QEII), modern limos and the World’s Fastest Mini, another NZ vehicle to have proved itself on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2012 and 2016.
After a delicious lunch at the Little Engine Cafe, we made our way over to the Mountain Design store to check out their 50% OFF Everything Sale. Bernie found a shirt and a pair of travel trousers that he couldn’t say no to at half price.
Next, a drive along Stansell Avenue to Paddy’s Nob for an incredible panoramic view taking in the beach of Tahunanui and the sprawling metropolis of Stoke and Richmond below. Rabbit Island and the towns of Motueka and Mapua could be spied further away with the whole vista set against a backdrop of the snow-capped Arthur Range.
After a couple more stops at viewpoints along Stansell Avenue, the SatNav was set for the Centre of New Zealand Monument. Due to roadworks we arrived there by a somewhat circuitous route! Good old Syri took the traffic disruptions in her stride, delivering us to the car park near the access point. This is another spot we have visited before but, if memory serves, on a much colder, gloomier day. That memory could be hazy because I don’t remember having to walk so far UP HILL, to reach the monument!
Our timing could have been better, as we now found ourselves making our return to Richmond in peak hour traffic. On our way home we refuelled the car and purchased a few ingredients to take a turn at making dinner tonight. One of the old standards, a spag bol.
Then it was on to the Trans Tasman Bolivia Ashes, Day 4. With one win each at Bolivia tonight, the tally went to five games to three in New Zealand’s favour. Sandra had another win at Jo, so that’s two games to Sandra, one game to Robin, with the Aussies struggling to find their Jo mojo!!
Steps: 9,242 (5.86kms)
