© NZPocketGuide.com
© NZPocketGuide.com

24 Hours in Nelson City – Day 87

© NZPocketGuide.com

Day 87 on the Road

Exploring Nelson City

Today we are checking out Nelson as part of our 365 Days: 365 Activities in New Zealand!

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We’re going to the sunniest city in New Zealand to see the biggest One Ring you can ever found and we are going right in the Center of New Zealand. We’re going to Nelson today.

This morning we are leaving Okiwi Bay really early because we are making our way out of the wild Marlborough region toward the sunny city of Nelson. Nelson is the capital of the Nelson Tasman region and this is where we’re going to base ourselves for the next few days and explore the area.

Because it’s been a while since we’ve been in civilization, we take the opportunity to update our wardrobe to something summery since we are in the sunniest city in New Zealand. Did we already say that already?

So once Laura is all geared up, with new outdoor gear for summer from Torpedo7, we are picking up some bikes from the Tasman Bay Backpackers where we are going to be staying during our time in Nelson. We’ve decided to pick up some bikes to explore Nelson today because we do have a lot of spots to hit, our map is absolutely full of stuff to check out.

Our first stop is in Trafalgar Street which is the location of Jens Hansen, this is the official ringmakers from The Lord of the Rings. We are at the official One Ring makers. The One Ring from The Lord of the rings that is.

this is quite a feet for a jewellery in New Zealand to be the one place the one shop where the one ring has been designed for the trilogy for The Lord of the Rings and even for the trilogy of The Hobbit.

The lady in the shop is really eager to show us a lot of different versions of the rings. There is heaps of them including a gigantic one which is super heavy.

So we are at Jens Hansen which is the jewellery where they made all the One Rings doesn’t sound very right. And they had to make them in 40 different sizes and this is the biggest one they had to do for when the ring is actually slowly falling into the snow. So that’s the biggest one rings of them all. This is confusing.

This ring which weight up to 2kg is used in all the close-up shots from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit. MY precious. My Big precious.

Once we are done nerding out in this really tiny shop, We are making out almost just across the street to The Bead Gallery. that was really surprising to us to see a bead shop on the tourist map of Nelson but there’s heaps to see and it’s a very unusual shop. It’s not like we’re really into beads but this place is actually really worth checking out just for the cool and quirkiness of it. There’s a whole different array of colours to see you’re sort of banging your head on beads as you’re walking around, the bead gallery is dubbed as one of the biggest bead stores in New Zealand which I’m sure is quite the achievement. And surprisingly we do spend way too long here looking at this amazing array of beads.

On our way to our next stop we bike through the beautiful Queen’s Gardens full of features forest and quaint little bridges. We park up our bikes at the Botanical Reserve where we are going on hike up to the Centre of New Zealand.

To the kauri tree or to the Centre of New Zealand? Which one’s better?

After quite a debate we decide that we’re gonna check out the kauri tree on the way up to the Centre of New Zealand to keep the best for last. Now the climb is quite easy to be honest and the Kauri tree is about halfway up. This kauri tree doesn’t look really impressive but it’s over 50 years old already so this tree which looks so small is 50 years old and we’ve showed you guys kauri trees that were much older and much bigger this should tell you how slowly they grow. After a quick lookout of the Nelson area we are finally making our way up to the famous Centre of New Zealand.

We find out exactly why the Centre of New Zealand is noteworthy place thanks to all the monuments and signs up here, but it’s also a really awesome place to get some views of Nelson city and the surrounding mountains covered in forest. So after that, we are heading back on the bikes to the Tasman Bay Backpackers for a quiet night in sunny Nelson City.

For close-up shop, for close up shot for close up shop for close up shot.

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