John and I have now been back in Nelson for four weeks. In only six weeks we wing our way back to France on an Emirates A380. The last four weeks has just rocketed by and been anything but a relaxed reintroduction to Nelson-based life.
The strangest thing has been not being able to stay in our own home. It was obvious to us last year that it was going to be difficult to rent our house out short-term over the winter months, and because we knew we would only be back in Nelson for a few months this summer, we rented our home out last June for a minimum 12-month lease. Thus when we we arrived in Nelson at the beginning of February, we could only call on our renters, say 'hi', have a quick catch-up and a very brief look around the place. It's all in good order.
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| Our new digs - views of Haulashore Island to the left and the port entrance to the right |
Using Trademe, we had managed to find a two-bedroom place just off Wakefield Quay on the waterfront to rent for two months. Unfortunately, it didn't become available until we had already been back in Nelson for two weeks. No worries. One of our friends and neighbours at Walters Bluff opened up their home to us and we spent a nice week with them, looking wistfully across the road at our own house! We spent most of that week on 'start-up' jobs. These included getting both the cars out of our garage and down to get warranted and registered. Next it was a matter of collecting cartons of summer clothes and other things left carefully handy in the garage, organising new gym memberships, visiting banks, insurance companies and doing a myriad of other tasks to kick-start living here again.
In amongst all this, six days after arriving in Nelson we flew back up to Tauranga for a wedding, just to make sure we didn't get too settled in Nelson. It was interesting visiting there. John and I hadn't been to Tauranga for perhaps 3 or 4 years, and before that at least another dozen. We have from time to time vaguely tossed around the idea of selling up in Nelson and moving to a smaller house or apartment in Tauranga, as the only other area in New Zealand with as nice a climate as Nelson. However, having a bit of a look around with this thought in mind, neither of us found it sufficiently appealing. We specially love the fact that Nelson has a compact central core - you can walk to the beach, marina and waterfront, hilltop lookouts and more very easily. So much is readily to hand. Tauranga doesn't seem to stack up for us, though we admit we haven't really given it a fair chance.
Back in Nelson, we collected our car from the airport car park and this time we were off on move No.2 - bunking down in the spare room at John's mother's place for the next week. We had an agreeable week with her, spending Friday evening out at John's sister's place near Brightwater for the most enjoyable garden wedding of our nephew and his French bride.
Move No.3 came on Monday morning when John and I could finally collect all the stuff we needed from the garage and take it to our new rental accommodation on the waterfront. It is a funny, oldish place, perhaps 1970s, but in good order with two bedrooms, large rooms and views to die for. We are set back one house from the waterfront so the road noise is not intrusive, but the views out to the harbour entrance and Haulashore Island are still just amazing.
As I'm writing this it is Sunday afternoon and there are lots of little boats tootling around in the water in front of us, plus larger yachts, speedboats, paddlers, boaties out for a leisurely fish, large vessels coming in through the entrance to Port Nelson, kayakers and all-in-all an, unbelievable amount of watercraft and activity. During the week there are yacht races out of the harbour every Wednesday night, and 150-plus swimmers in races in the harbour on Thursday nights. It's been delightful watching all the activity, wandering along the waterfront in the evenings and enjoying what the area has to offer, including a pleasant 20-minute walk up and over the hill into town most days of the week.
Being so close to all the boating activity between Haulashore Island and the port offers a completely different experience to the view of Nelson Haven and sea that we have from our house on Walters Bluff. We've always thought our own view was pretty good, but we didn't realise just how different it could be being closer to the water.
Like we had done for Tauranga, we have also entertained the idea of moving to an apartment on the waterfront here so we could downsize and free up some money, turn the key and walk out the door to travel. Many people in Nelson will say that the apartments on the waterfront are very noisy (particularly from the trucks going to and from the port) and also fumy from the traffic. The sun can also be very hot and glary as it pours straight into your front windows in the afternoons when you don't really need it. We wanted to try all this out for ourselves. We couldn't find an apartment to rent for such a short term but were very lucky to find this place. We are enjoying aspects of living here that we hadn't even anticipated. Perhaps they would compensate for having to put up with heavy traffic in front? Living here has certainly thrown up some good questions and new ideas. It's been a very good test.
John and I both had some questions about how we would feel coming back to Nelson. We had been away for over eight months, were very much enjoying living in Céret, hugely looking forward to getting back as soon as possible to start our next project, and had just arrived from spending two weeks with our daughter and her husband in Melbourne. Who knows how much time we might actually end up living in Nelson, if at all, over the next few years or in the longer term?
So, it's an interesting exercise for us to put down in writing some of our impressions since we have been back:
- It's again been lovely bumping into so many friends and acquaintances when out and about in town. It makes us realise how many people we know here.
- Catching up with friends and family has been great, and the chats, coffees, beers, wines and meals we are sharing with them is lots of fun.
- Nelson is a great little city to come home to. It's compact, offers a variety of landscapes and is so sunny. It's confirmed to us that, if we are going to keep living in NZ, then Nelson will be it.
- We have met or heard of a number of friends and acquaintances who have suffered ill health during the last year. Many are only 5-8 years older than us. This makes us even more determined to keep ourselves as fit and healthy as possible, and to enjoy our good health while we have it.
- Prices in Nelson keep rising. A normal loaf of bread at $4? Peppers up to $2 each? Roquefort cheese at over $100/kg! It's confirmed that to us it costs a good deal less to live in Céret than in Nelson.
- We are missing the general friendliness and politeness of Céret. It's rare not to get an acknowledgement or bonjour as you pass somebody on the street there. The politeness in the Céret shops is so different - - there's always a bonjour as you arrive and an au revoir as you leave - not just from the shopkeeper but everyone else in the shop.
- Personally, I'm missing all the lovely pecks on each cheek that all our French friends give us at every 'bonjour' and 'au revoir'. It's just so friendly.
