Hoping some of the Kiwis on here can give me some information on Nelson, New Zealand. My GF is going there for three months to study English. Here are some of the questions she had:
Is there any Chinese style restaurants?
Internet connection – dial up/broadband etc.
Is it easy to get around? I’m assuming a car will be needed.
Are there lots of students studying from abroad?
I know little to nothing about it. I have googled it a bit and it does look like an amazing place. Any info would be much appreciated!
I spent a day in Nelson a couple years ago as part of an around-the-islands trip. It’s a very nice town, with sort of a university feel to it. There’s a good variety of restaurants (an excellent pizzaria included) but I can’t recall if there’s any Chinese. Even if there is, I can’t imagine it would be the kind of Chinese your GF is used to.
They have broadband, as I used an Internet cafe there. Transportation is best done by car, no doubt. Plus she’d want a car to explore the surrounding area.
As to foreign students- isn’t there some kind of International English learning center there? Apart from that, I just don’t know. HTH…
Don’t know about Chinese food, but they do have some great restaurants and vineyards. One that springs to mind is Te Mania. That whole Nelson, Picton, Malborough region is fantastic, if you love food and wine.
You mean Whakatu? Pronounced phuck her too, from memory, and with modesty in mind. That’s the maori name, or as I recall it.
I heard it is a beautiful place, but that was from a kiwi so you probably have to take that with a measure of dag.
I don’t think they have electricity in the south island as yet.
Best re-direct your GF to see this movie. Aotearoa is a nice enough place, but there’s a clear and present danger lurking in its innocent farmlands. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.
Thanks for the feedback everybody. She been there for a couple weeks and is already pretty bored. She misses Taiwanese food, her dog and me….in that order.
Personally I’d be a tad disappointed, not with your GF’s boredom, or order of absent desires, but rather the poor response from our kiwi flock.
They are a strange people, has to be said. Broody, moody, mountain humping, or “tramping” as they call it, types or drug induced ladyboys with switchblades and chains. There’s only two types of person in that odd little country. They’re suspicious of strangers, as a general rule. I refer you back to the two types of person as to why that might be.
i was privileged to spend part of my mis-spent youf in nelson (ok my 6th year to be precise).
it is a lovely little town with a vibrant arts scene (more potters than you can shake a stick at, and a lot of pot too).
it is small tho’…very small by taiwan standards (18,000 people?)
there is a legendary cafe called Chez Elco at the foot of the Cathedral which acts as the focal point for events and connections ie it has a noticeboard for backpackers looking for people to share a kayak trip with…suggest your GF hangs round there altho’ she’ll prolly meet some neferious types who will introduce her to the local mushrooms and change her life forever…
I spent about 5 years in a nearby town when in the airforce, and Nelson was the kind of place we’d head to on a very regular basis.
It’s been a while, but here a few things I’d recommend:
A Car is an absolute must, or hooking up with someone that has a car.
The cafe scene is pretty cool and great for sitting in the sun and people watching.
The Beach is great.
The Arts scene is HUGE in Nelson and up the coast a bit. There are literally 100s of home based studios dotted all over Golden Bay that are often working so you can watch stuff being made. One of my favourites years ago was Hogland’s Glass Studio. These days it is a multi million dollar operation I understand, but still an impressive place to go and see them make incredible stuff out of glass.
Get in touch with a Hiking group. The Nelson Lakes National Park has some of the best hiking in NZ, and is suitable for day trips or weekends away. The Able Tasman is also a legendary and a short drive from Nelson.
Often there are park concerts in the city over summer, and some of those are excellent. Probably a bit late for those now.
Back to Arts, the Nelson Polytech (or whatever it’s called now) is very well known for night classes in various things from the usual stuff like Painting and sculpture, to more NZ type of things like Maori weaving, Maori Stone and Bone carving etc.
There are a lot of european immigrants in Nelson, so there are often various cooking classes going on…
There is a brilliant weekend market right in the main city carpark. Many of the outlying arty farty’s bring in their stuff to sell. Have spent many hours checking things out there.
Weekend garage sales are a kiwi institution and something you don’t really see here. Check out the newspapers for those.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]See, bleat some nasty words about them and those kiwis come running out of the back paddocks like, well lambs to the slaughter.
HG[/quote]
mate we’re not all sitting in cushy Central high rise offices being pampered by Suzy Wong’s granddaughters…
[quote=“the bear”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]See, bleat some nasty words about them and those kiwis come running out of the back paddocks like, well lambs to the slaughter.
HG[/quote]
mate we’re not all sitting in cushy Central high rise offices being pampered by Suzy Wong’s granddaughters…
some of actually have, ahem, work to do… [/quote]
Bastard! Anyway, I wouuldn’t touch Suzy Wong’s stumpy legged grand daughters in a fit, well not when the pickings from SE Asia are so much more fun. Erh, I mean . . .
And it’s Admiralty, dammit! One stop closer to Wanchai.
