Saturday, 1 November 2025
This morning we drove into Nelson to check out its famous Saturday Market. The market has been running for almost 40 years and showcases the best that the Nelson region has to offer in arts, crafts and produce. In more recent years the market has introduced a wide variety of food carts, making it a wonderful place to grab a bite to eat, while checking out the array of goods on offer at a truly iconic market.
While we browsed we certainly helped to stimulate the market economy. We were only about three stalls in and we already had our wallets out. We purchased a selection of metalwork items, greeting cards and wooden spoons from five different stalls holders, so spreading our spending around! We’d better declare those wooden spoons at Customs when we go back into Oz.
We dropped our purchases back to the car before returning to the market square to buy BLAT sandwiches for lunch. We had carefully vetted all the food vendors as we made our way up and down all the aisles and believed we had sussed out the yummiest lunch option. While we ate our BLATs we talked to a couple of Irish tourists and another from England. They were all heading to the West Coast so we wished them better luck with the weather than we had.
Our next stop was Christ Church Cathedral, an Anglican cathedral located on Trafalgar Square in Nelson. There has been a church on this site since 1887, but construction of the current cathedral took place between 1925 and 1965. The cathedral features a 35-metre tall bell tower and a pipe organ with 2,500 pipes. While the cathedral is built from Tākaka marble, the concrete bell tower was added at the end of construction in 1965.
We approached the cathedral by way of the Cawthron Steps. These impressive steps that lead up to the cathedral on Church Hill (Piki Mai in Māori, meaning ‘climb hither’) were financed by Thomas Cawthron and built between 1912 and 1913 using granite from a quarry in Tonga Bay. Serving as a meeting place for the residents of Nelson for over a century (I’ll meet you at the steps) they certainly add to the overall grandeur of the cathedral site.
The cathedral has extensive gardens surrounding it, so we walked around and around each of the various levels circling the hill, to contribute to our Exercise goal for the day. Returning to the bottom of the hill via this circuitous route, we took a path out the side of the garden to walk across to the South Street Heritage Precinct. This is New Zealand’s oldest fully preserved street with cottages dating from 1863. The cottages were originally built as homes for local tradespeople and, following sensitive restorations, continue to be occupied to this day. We were even able to say hello to the friendly neighbourhood cat while we photographed the quaint cottages.
After our outing we made our way back to Robin and Sandra’s for the remainder of the afternoon. Before dinner they introduced us to another board game called ‘Sequence’. Happy to report that the ladies won two games to one! It’s only by partnering up with Sandra that I can win a game!!
After a BBQ dinner, it was back to the Main Event. Unfortunately, I have to report that after a promising start to Australia, Robin and Sandra came over the top to take the tally to 9-4, to win this series of The Trans Tasman Bolivia Ashes. There’s simply not enough playing time left for us to redeem ourselves.
Rather than play a dead rubber, we decided to proceed with a game of Jo. After holding the lead for much of the game, I lost to Robin on the final hand. Damn, our bad card mojo continues to haunt us! The side game tally is Sandra – three, Robin – two and me – one, with Bernie yet to win a game. He usually enjoys quite good luck when playing Jo, but not at the moment. It really is proving to be New Zealand’s year!
Steps: 10,808 (6.93kms)
