Neale & Haddow

Neale & Haddow was a big hardware store on Trafalgar Street. There was another big hardware store, Wilkins & Field. The latter became a franchise of the big chain, Mitre 10; I'm not sure if this eventually forced Neale & Haddow to close. Anyway, in the last decade, W&F's Mitre 10 was the only hardware store in Nelson's central business district.

Around April 2006, Mitre 10 moved out about 10 minutes West and opened a Mega Store, and closed their store in the city. Feeling the need for at least a place where people can buy nails and a hammer, the current owner resurrected the name Neale & Haddow, this time on Rutherford Street. He intends to have a blurb on the history of Neale and Haddow in the shop in the future.

There's no lavish outdoor furniture, no spa bath, no barbecues, but the shop has everything you might need to fix a few things around the house, or apply a new coat of paint. And the owner's son lives upstairs.

Here are a few shots of the interior.

And... a surprising fact about what I might have seen from the Arts Council loo window found here in the fourth paragraph starting with "When we got to...".

Flowers at River Bank

This is a flowers at river bank. I don't know the name of this flower, but I found it is quite attractive. Another shot here for little more close up. Most of the year, it is a glossy large green leaves, and when the time comes it present this to us.

Arts Council Loo

It has a built-in noose, and the windowpane is removable for easy escape. In fact, it's not there in this shot.

Sunset From Our Lounge

This is a view from our lounge (living room). It is a rather ordinary sunset but I like to watch the colors change minute by minute. This is approximately at 9:45 PM on 15 January.

Oh You Fabulous Women You!!!

Lovely Kath Bee and her friends busked as Nancies in front of the ANZ bank, 1pm yesterday.

Nelson is kind to buskers, and if you're really good, people will come up and demand to buy your CD. These women were, I say in a totally unbiased way, superb. The pitch was perfect (except when they had one glitch), atmosphere just delightful, and two of them write songs to boot.

If I remember correctly, there's a buskers' festival next week.

Comet McNaught

How lucky I am. It's in here and I can see it from our lounge.
The photo was taken at 24/Jan/2007 10:21PM. Another shot in sketchbook.

And What's Emily Thinking?

I think she looks like an Emily. I think she was angry for being uprooted from her school and her friends, and was determined to hate this place. She's also exhausted and scared and she might cry any minute.

You know, Emily could be the great-great-grandmother of someone I know!

(I haven't forgotten Dad, either, but he's much taller than me, so this is the best I could do. His right ear seems to indicate he played rugby in the old country.)

Footbridge in The Rain

Believe it or not, this is a private bridge. This photo was taken 9 Jan 2007 near the gorge in Brightwater.

Mother's Mixed Feelings

I was very lukewarm about Early Settlers until last week, when I got up close and personal. It's quite a good piece of work. Look at the mother, for example; at once she looks relieved to be off the ship, a little worried about what to expect from her new home, and probably is wondering how she is going to feed her family on this first day.

AO TEA ROA

This is probably the most famous mural in Nelson, at Wakefield Quay. Aotearoa is the indigenous Maori name for New Zealand, meaning, "Land of Long White Cloud".

Meg's Map says: "Aotearoa" was painted by mural artist Chris Finlayson in 1984. Scenery, window structure and clouds are set into a carved timber panel. The pattern at the top reflects a tuku tuku design found in marae meeting houses and found in Celtic, African and Middle Eastern art forms. The building used to be the city electricity facility and is still commonly known as the 'Powerhouse".

You may have noticed the angle is almost identical any time this mural is shot. That's because this is at the side of one of Nelson's busiest stretch of road, and there isn't much room to play with, unless you have an exceptional insurance policy.

Coming out of Nelson, this mural is just before The Boat Shed (right about the letter "l" of (Wakefield Quay" io the map); opposite of The Cut, before Tahunanui Beach. It's almost worth hiring/renting a convertible two-seater just to drive top down this stretch, according to my brother.

Well, They Can't Just Microwave It !?

Here's the Fish & Chip shop mentioned yesterday. The sign reads "PARKING 15 mins ONLY 7 DAYS". I doesn't look too busy in this photo because it was a little early, but this is one of the most popular, and in a little while you'd be lucky if you can get away in half an hour; we've waited as long as 45 minutes for our fish, chips, and deep-fried pineapple rings. Wait, I had to wait longer, but that's another story entirely.

I shot this on 14 October, but took this long to decide to post because Mr two-fish-extra-salt-on-chips is looking this way. I thought of "defacing" him so he couldn't be identified, but I like it just the way it is. I do love people photos, but am still nervous about taking them, let alone posting.

I will not be able to visit your blogs in the coming week/s, though Ben will continue to post my pics. I hope to catch up with you when my busy week passes. Thanks.

Salt Water Cafe & Bar

When we went there, it was under previous management and called Olivia's; they served good seafood and wine. On the left are a fish monger and one of the most popular fish & chips shops in town. This is Wakefield Quay, near these folks.

Flying Girl

7PM, Saturday 6 January, Kaiteriteri Beach. Can you feel the little girl is in a panic to squeeze as much fun out of the last minutes of the holiday as possible?

Mosaic - Whole View

The entrance of HUB youth centre/theatre on New Street in the CBD; this is the entire mosaic facade from across the street. One last extra shot here.

Meg's Map says: "Hub Mosaic. The Hub is a community centre for young people. The heart and star mosaic, by Nelson sculptor Valeska Campion, was installed in 1999. The side panels of individually crafted ceramic tiles were created as a community arts project, involving Nelson schoolchildren and sponsor companies. "

Keropok Man, Meg is sitting in the corner, facing the wall.

Speaking of New Zealand Ice Creams....

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream is a New Zealand treat; it's vanilla ice cream with golden Hokey Pokey nuggets; the New Zealand Ice Cream Industry says after vanilla, this is Kiwis' second favorite flavor, followed by chocolate and strawberry.

To your right, Hokey Pokey ice cream in the ice cream container. To the right, my version: break the Crunchie chocolate bar in the wrapping, unwrap, mix content with ice cream, preferably when it's still soft immediately after coming home from the supermarket. You get crunchier Hokey Pokey this way. (But if you want a quick fix, you just pile it on, like in this photo.)

(Culture of New Zealand in Wiki has a special section on Dairy Fat!!)

Mosaic 2

This is a part of mosaic facade on the right side of a theatre entrance. On this side, you can find many tiles specially made for sponsors.

Flax Flowers

These flax leaves were at least 3 meters high, so the flowers must be well over 4 meters; I was looking straight up to try to shoot a bee in one of them. At the Toad Hall car park.

Mosaic 1

This is a part of mosaic facade on the left side of a theatre entrance. It's fun to look at!

Toad Hall

At the entrance of the township of Motueka is Toad Hall, our regular fruit-and-frozen-yogurt stop. It used to be a gift/souvenir shop with a little bit of veggies, fruits and milk, but now the emphasis is more on the veggies and fruits, catering to locals and visitors as Motueka is the last town before you enter Abel Tasman National Park.

The lady with the earing was in charge of the goodies this day, and the queue was the longest we've seen in months. After having our frozen yogurt here for nearly 10 years, I noticed for the first time, looking at the building from the outside, that...

Red Net and Blue Sky

At Riwaka. Another shot here. The red nets are to keep the birds out.

[Erratum] As JB said in his comment, it is a shade cloth. He kindly gave us a link to Nelson Mail article. Thanks John!

Hop

Areas surrounding Motueka township north of Nelson used to be a big tobacco growing region until Rothmans stopped buying NZ tobacco; we also heard that it was because New Zealand government decided to stop domestic production of tobacco, so I'm not sure what the truth is. I believe around that time hop and apples started to replace tobacco, in more recent times, grapes, other fruits and olives. Most of the hop is taken down to Christchurch to make beer, Canterbury Draught.

Nelson's biggest brewery, Mac's, has recently closed its operation here and moved to the big smokes but that's another story; we have a few boutique breweries which we prefer.

More information on tobacco dated 2001 here.

Trailer

We stopped by to buy a bag of cherries and apricots and I found this. It's a nice blue sky and interesting clouds featuring this trailer. To the left was a stall selling cherries and apricots; we couldn't buy any because Meg had spent all the cash buying strawberries at a fancier stall down the road.

Someone Else's Sandcastle

Where else but Rabbit Island. The wind was getting stronger, and the castle was crumbling even as I shot the pictures, and I kept thinking about Osgiliath; too much The Lord of the Rings DVDs over the holidays. Here are some other shots, including an "aerial" shot.

Kaiteriteri Beach

Kaiteriteri Beach; golden sand, blue sky, warm water, this is opposite the holiday park posted yesterday.
Another shot here.

End of the Holiday

Last night, some of these folks were tidying up their belongings, getting ready to go home, while others were sharing a beer with their neighbors, standing by the fence and looking at the beach across the road. A typical Kiwi summer holiday. The man in the green tent relaxed in either a hammock or a Lazy-Boy-type foldable chair, while the Mrs fussed about.

It's not a great shot, but I really wanted to capture the bittersweet mood of the motor camp without getting right into the faces of the holiday-makers on their last night. Teenagers were talking especially loudly with animated gestures with their new friends; kids were insisting on one last run down the slide while parents stood around waiting. I was feeling nostalgic about thier summer memories already.

Amazing how many had a satellite dish, too. (And it'll be a while before I post a photo with the rubbish bin right in the middle in focus!) At Kaiteriteri Beach, north of Motueka.

Sailing on The Beach

At our favourite Rabbit Island. I believe this one is a home made vehicle and, boy, it's fast!
Another shot here.

New Zealand Ice Cream Containers

Knowing the fresh stuff were only 15 minutes away, I couldn't stand eating frozen, so we went again last Saturday.

I also wanted to show you the New Zealand ice cream container. Of course various manufacturer has different sizes and shapes of container, but when someone refers to an ice cream container in this country, s/he means the square, plastic 2 litter containers. They come in white, black, blue or sometimes purple, and we use and reuse these in the kitchen, the workshop, in arts and crafts, schools, and on picnics. They are square, stackable, and just so darned handy, and if you break or loose a few or need to give them away, no worries, all you need is to get some more ice cream.

For such a convenient and loved vessel, I'm sorry it hasn't got a spiffier name than the "ice cream container".

Pohutukawa

This one is just outside the living room. It usually full in flower by Christmas, but it is little late this summer. Here is another angle and link to wider shot.

Our Car

Ben's allowed to dream; ours is the red one in the reflection. I just loved the color of the Porsche.

The NZ School of Fisheries Buliding

This is my favorite old building in Nelson, the former library, built in 1911. The three facades on Hardy (front), Harley (east) and the west side have "features of heritage significance" and the building is a Group A Rank 2 (!!) historical building.

For more information about the school can be found here and here.

The Best of Nelson Daily Photo 2006

Happy New Year everyone!

We have done quite number of landscape photos featuring sky and cloud formation. They include burning red sky, purple sunset and some like this one in the morning. We choose this because of the cloud formation that we both think is interesting and the photo shows one of the landmarks of Nelson, the Boulder Bank.

The original post can be found here.

Today is Theme Day. Other DP Blogs have also selected their best photo from 2006. Please click on the numbers below to view them.

1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12 -13 -14 -15 -16 -17 -18 -19 -20 -21 -22 -23 -24 -25 -26 -27 -28 -29 -30 -31 -32 -33 -34 -35 -36 -37 -38 -39 -40 -41 -42 -43 -44 -45 -46 -47 -48 -49 -50 -51 -52