No. 190

Getting Baked in Nelson: No not that kind of baked, rather the kind where Amy lays in a bikini on the beach, uncovered for about five glorious minutes and then spends the next two hours covered in towels, sheets, sand, hats, books, pieces of driftwood, flotsam, jetsam, basically anything that blocks her fair skin from the sun. I’ve said this a bunch already, but the sun really is incredibly hot on the skin here. I was startled at sunrise a few days ago in Punakaiki when I went from cool to sweltering/burning in about 30 seconds. Now that we’re back and cooking in this double sun, it feels a bit silly to have complained about not having it around for a week.

But there it was in Nelson and oh how we basked in it. Tahunanui beach on the outskirts of town has every trapping of a Kiwi beach afternoon – a couple kilometers of golden soft sand, swimmable waters, a vintage playground with dangerous fun rides, free parking and a Mr. Whippy soft serve van cranking out the double dips. Mmmm, double dip. I took my own double dip in the turquoise bay and it was the first time I’ve been swimming in this country without the numbing creep of hypothermia in my toes. Not sure what the actual temperature was, but I did try to get an answer on that from a salty old timer who’d just ambled over the dunes from the water.

Me: How’s the water?
Him: Fine, nice swim today.
Me: What do you suppose the temperature is?
Him: Oh I don’t know, I just get in it (squints up at my “Monday Night Football” visor) You here on holiday then?

Yeah, we’re here on holiday. And back floats and sunburns in sunny Nelson make it feel like the real deal.

Photos from Nelson, left to right: Family vacation; space age thrills; queued up for Mr. Whippy; inside the gorgeous Christ Church cathedral; button-cute cottages in the South District; Amy plays it safe.