Tasman Region: Part 1 (Paparoa, Nelson Lakes NP and Nelson)

We made it all the way up the West Coast! The last few days we’ve been hitting National Park after National Park. After Arthur’s Pass NP, we arrived at Paparoa National Park, home to the pancake rocks. The limestone formations were so cool – it literally looked like rocks stacked up one on top of the other. If you’ve ever made drip castles at the beach, then you know what I mean. Unfortunately, our viewing time got cut short. It started raining and soon we were stuck in an all out downpour. Running to the car, we said bye bye to Pancake Rocks and drove to Westport, one of the other two bigger cities on the West Coast (besides Greymouth). These towns were all old mining and industrial towns so granted they looked a little outdated. We looked up breweries (hey it’s another rainy day) and were brought to West Coast Brewery. Unfortunately due to licensing, they only sold growlers and were not able to sell pints on site. However, the guy behind the counter was super nice and let us sample some of the beers and ciders on tap. Six pack in hand, we left and went to our campsite, hoping for better weather the next day.

~the next day~

We broke tent and headed inland to Nelson Lakes National Park, the sixth (?) NP on our circuit. The NP was a little quiet but known for its two special Lakes. We made it to one, Rotoiti, before being slammed with… more rain! Finally exasperated with all the bad weather we’d had, we decided to B-line it north for the town of Nelson. The town was self-proclaimed as the craft beer capital of NZ which was good enough for us (there was other stuff too).

Arriving in Nelson, we headed for our first brewery, Eddyline Brewery and Pizzeria. Ironically, the owner’s first brewery was founded in Buena Vista, Colorado, before he opened up shop in NZ. Maybe if public accounting doesn’t work out, I know what my second option is..

We enjoyed some IPAs before heading to our campsite. For being so close to the city, we feel we got a really good deal in terms of pricing. For NZ campgrounds, you usually have to pay per person. For two nights, we paid a total of $40 NZD for both of us, which included kitchen access, showers and running water!! Oh, the small things in life you take for granted. We made a dinner of freeze-dried spaghetti bolognese (pretty good but not one of our favorites) and split a boysenberry cider from West Coast Brewery before heading to bed with high hopes for the next day.

We woke up around 10am and shortly made it into town for our 11am brewery tour at McCashins. It was $25 pp, which included a ~45 minute tour, tastings and a takeaway souvenir. I will preface this by saying this was the best tour ever. Why you ask? We’ve done so many brewery tours, what could possibly put it over the top? Well, there were three other couples on the tour, all similar in age, and it was nice to mingle with other people. After the really well-explained and informative tour, we went back to the taproom and our [awesome] tour guide set up a beer bar for us. The tour was only supposed to provide five tastings but soon we had 8-10 pitchers of their cider and beer to share among us. We broke out some games and had a great time getting to know everyone. So much in fact, that we spent the whole day with some of the couples. After McCashins, we walked downtown and tried some other beers at The Workshop and Sprig and Fern. It was really fun because the other couples were card players and we got some good games in, mostly of a variation of games we refer to as Capitalism And Golf. It was so interesting to see the variations that the couples from Spain and NZ followed in their versions. At the last brewery of the night, a taxi driver came up to us at our outside table and offered a free ride to Jared and one of the other guys with us around the block. It was the most interesting thing – the guy’s bike was parked right outside the street and he had a sidecar with two seats! They got in and went for a five minute ride around town before safely making it back. It was a very fun day spending time with new friends and, of course, trying Nelson craft beer.

The next morning, we woke up to…sunshine! There is a local Nelson farmer’s market every Saturday and we headed into town for that. It was huge! There must have been at least 100 booths of crafts, food trucks, gifts and fruits/veggies. Not eating super well the day before, we splurged a bit and got a smoothie, pulled pork wrap, and bratwurst sandwich. We also sampled a bunch of stuff and ended up buying this delicious smoked fish for our dinner that night. After stuffing ourselves and walking around, we made one more trip to an ice cream place called Penguino that I really wanted to try. Known for their wacky flavors, I settled for two scoops of boysenberry and feijoa/ginger sorbet. Satisfied and full, we left Nelson and decided to head back to Nelson Lakes for a second chance since the weather was looking so good.

I’m glad we did – we ended up doing the Mount Rogers hike to get a stunning elevated view of Lake Rotoiti below. We also spent some time down by the dock. Within the lake under the pier, there were hundreds of eels. The animals were so archaic looking – one of the guides there said they live to be 50-150 years old. They were protected in the since no one was allowed to fish for them in that lake, but apparently eel is a delicacy in some parts of NZ that is not to be missed! I don’t think I could eat one.placeholder://

That night in Nelson NP, we stayed at another Dept of Conservation campsite and enjoyed good weather throughout the night. Waking up and before heading out of the park, we stopped at the dock one last time for some pictures and to eat breakfast. Jared even decided to jump in the water! It was a little cold but he says very refreshing. Good thing one of the eels didn’t get to him! Just kidding, apparently they’re harmless.