New Zealand Day 10

Today we did a 6-mile-long walking tour of the Nelson tourist sights.  We had great weather and plenty of exercise.  We hiked up to the "Centre of New Zealand," then to the Japanese Garden, then to Founders Park, which is something of historical village of period buildings and artifacts, and finally back to the hotel.

Our hotel; the balcony above the car is ours.

The "Centre" was 500 vertical feet up and 1.6 miles from the hotel.

Lots of cicadas - look in the middle above the acorns.  It has green body and translucent wings.

View of Nelson from the "Centre of New Zealand"

One of the interpretive signs at the top, explaining the 13 kilometer barrier island that protects Nelson's harbor and the reason the city was located here.

The monument at the top of the Centre of NZ (the site represents a surveying midpoint in the province, rather a claim to being the middle of NZ)

A rock filled and very classy public lending/trading library.

A mass of eels in the Japanese Garden pond.

And, again, a solo eel, about 2 feet long.

View of the pond

Another view of the pond with bridge.

And lilies in the pond.

Founder's Park buildings relocated from other places in Nelson.  The windmill was near the city centre originally.

For the woodworkers -- router planes and saws.

A treadle-powered lathe

And, wooden planes

The first commercial cargo plane.  The fuselage encloses the cargo space, which is accessed from clam shell doors at the nose.  The cockpit is above the cargo space.  A special rolling platform was developed to slide four pallet-sized cargo loads into the plane.

There were lots of ships models (several rooms), both free standing, full rigged sailing ships and many single "ships in a bottle."  Here is one of the latter with many ships inside.

After getting back to our hotel, I cooled off in the swimming pool, or rather the soaking tub (it is about 15 feet by 10 feet).  We walked out thinking we would have takeaway and sit next-door at a bar (another Sprig and Fern).  But this is no longer possible -- Google Maps for the takeaway shop needs updating.  So instead, we brought our supper back to the hotel and ate on our balcony, watching storm clouds gather over the nearby hills.