Knifemaking and (not so) Sunny Nelson

A couple weeks after Easter we had another long weekend - this time due to Anzac Day, which is the New Zealand version of Memorial Day. This year was the 100 year anniversary of the battle at Gallipoli that Anzac Day commemorates, so the celebrations were bigger than usual.  We took the opportunity of a three day weekend to check out one of the towns on the South Island that we missed over Christmas - Nelson!  Nelson is affectionately referred to as "Sunny Nelson" because of its reputation as one of the sunniest places in the country, so of course it rained the entire time we were there.

Where we stayed along the way - the Honest Lawyer Country Pub and Inn was even better than it sounded!  And our beach view in Punakaiki can't be beat - even with the crap weather. Don't be deceived by those blue skies above - it was the last we saw all weekend.

Our first day in Nelson we drove out to Abel Tasman National Park, which is supposed to be a spectacular place to spend a week in the summer.  We had a couple hours on a rainy fall afternoon, but we could still see the appeal.  We did the first hour or so of the Abel Tasman Great Walk. Hopefully one day we'll do the entire thing!

The beautiful Abel Tasman - with a reading break on the beach (until the rain came back). Just next to the entrance of the park is a beautiful sculpture garden.

After our time in Abel Tasman, we had a rainy, windy drive down to Punakaiki, where we stayed in an awesome cabin right by the beach.  The view when we woke up was still pretty stunning despite the rain. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad we had to skip the pancake rocks and blowhole that Punakaiki is famous for, but we had other more important plans - knifemaking!

How a knife is born

We tried to do the knifemaking course in Barrytown over Christmas, but it was completely booked for a full month. It was a bit out of our way, but it was worth it! We started with a piece of steel and some rimu and ended up with some pretty kick ass knives!  See below for more detail.

After knifemaking we took an even rainier drive back to Nelson. By the time we got to our hotel it was after 8pm, and not much was open in town that late on a Sunday (even on a holiday weekend), but we managed to find a cozy brewpub with something resembling poutine.

Monday morning we joined up with a tour company to do our first ever New Zealand beer tour! We've done at least 10 wine tours at this point, but this was our first beer tour!  Nelson claims the title of Craft Brew Capitol of New Zealand, and the hops grown here are in demand all over the world. After the tour our guide was kind enough to drop us off at the airport, and we were back in our beds by 9pm!

With the other member of our beer tour - a father/son duo from Australia looking to get into the brewing business.

Some of the stops along the way - including a village for guinea pigs.