Our last day in Nelson was spent just hanging out, going for walks, enjoying the scenery and actually touring the McCashin's brewery. Our tour guide at McCashin's was very interesting. He was kind of a 'stand in' - his name was Dan - he's the artist there and does all kinds of wall art around the place, and likely the art for bottles, t-shirts and the like. A rather dishevelled fellow, but very personable. The regular tour guide must be on holidays, because every time we ask Dan a question, he says 'you know, that's a good question, I'm not quite sure'.......He seems anxious to get the tour over with and on to the tasting part and he pours us samples of everything before we are even finished what we have. We get feeling kind of woozy after all the quick tastes and then Dan says goodbye and we see him sitting at the bar reading the paper - must have been close to his coffee break. The place also has a nice coffee bar and pizza ovens outside and a lot of people seem to be just lazing about, drinking beer or coffee and there are games and puzzles to do if you happen to get bored. Pretty laid back place. The tour itself is quite short but we go way up into the old part of the building where there are sacks and sacks of imported barley malts and the floorboards are well-worn. It's hot up there but then we go into the cooler and it's freezing. Dan whisks us through the whole thing and then we see the product coming through the machines, bottles being poured, capped and guys checking them to be sure they are fit for export and stuffing them into boxes. Very cool. I told Dan that my grandfather worked for Guinness in Ireland and we wonder whether they always had 'cans' with that little widget inside of them. I say I will ask my dad. I'm sure that Dan is waiting with bated breath to know. Brian buys a t-shirt with rainbow beer stokes on it and then the next day wonders if people think he is 'gay'. I didn't know that about rainbows.
Emily and I go shopping for an hour and she finds a cool pair of red shoes and I find a great pair of hang out pants at 'Mariposa' - a nicer store we did not find in Wellington - the capital of shopping.
The guys go shopping and buy 3 large pizzas. We get to backpackers and everyone is boiling things on the stove in 80 degree weather. So we add to the heat by turning the ovens on to 400 and cook our pizzas, then sit out on the deck and eat them. Leon has bought a 'seconds' pack of cider from McCashins for half price so we enjoy that along with our food and then torture ourselves with another few games of card monopoly.
We have decided to go back to Picton tomorrow where we catch the ferry back to Wellington because the drive is over an hour and the ferry leaves at 10:30. We will have to catch our plane back to New Plymouth once the ferry arrives, and being near the dock will give us a good nights rest instead of getting up at the crack of dawn and driving like the wind to catch the ferry. Our last night in beautiful Nelson. We could spend another week here. It's glorious.
Here are some misc. pics that correspond to some of the other posts.
Kayak adventure
Resting place somewhere
Tasman Bay Backpackers Lodge (they serve free pudding and ice cream every night at 8PM)
Tasman Bay Backpackers Lodge
Leon in 'a happy place' at Tasman Bay Backpackers
Abel Tasman, Dutch Explorer and Navigator (with friend)
Hoglund Art Glass Center
Lamp, Hoglund Art Glass Center
Split Apple Rock, Tasman Bay
Beer and pizza in paradise, that would put me in a happy place too. I think rainbows are gay because they are not "straight". Haha, ok sorry... really bad joke. Wearing a rainbow t-shirt doesn't necessarily mean your gay but may show that you are gay friendly. I'm shocked you guys didn't know that, but I find it hilarious to think of Dad walking around with a rainbow beer shirt. Good job.
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