Picton to Nelson

Exotic artworks in Nelson at night

DAY 3 – PICTON TO NELSON

Off in our bus, packed tight with passengers and luggage, to Nelson via Blenheim. Lots of lovely vineyards, farming country and the ever present mountains. Trees are just turning, so the colours are lovely, although the grape vines are still green. Nelson – great tourist info centre, great coffee shop, where a friendly American (we come here for 3 ½ months every year!) with a gorgeous felted vest pointed us in the direction of the Refinery Art Space. This turned out to be the highlight of our day, with a great exhibition of textile artworks which included several works by local artists who are going to be tutors at the Symposium – there were some truly lovely things here, but we weren't allowed to take photographs, so Wilma sketched a few things, we wrote a few names for further research and bought some cards to remind us of our visit (some also bought extras like lovely red ear rings), but it was really a fantastic exhibition. After the exhibition we went further into town, and did some shopping – all the shops we needed were in the same area (lucky, eh?) beads and necklaces, a fabulous wool shop and the one patchwork shop in town. We also looked through another exhibition space which had fibre arts on display and for sale. Then the trip out to the World of Wearable Art (& Classic Cars) to see the way out there displays and some fantastic and creative outfits using all sorts of materials – fabric usually the base, but also leather, feathers, tyre tubes, plastic, twine and so on. Very exotic. Our hotel room in Nelson is a family suite – the size of a small flat – and very close to the centre of town. Nice walk in the evening around the almost empty city centre.