Nelson

When I originally came to New Zealand, I hoped that a introductory tour of the country would inspire me to fall in love with some town or place, where I would return and happily find a job and settle down for a while. Naturally, I fell in love with the whole country and when the time came for Chantal to go home, I still didn't know what to do. I ended up getting the travel writing job in Napier, so my path was set. Near the end of my time there, I knew I had to pick somewhere new to settle down, so I stared at a map of the country and eventually settled on Nelson. The first time I had been through Nelson, it was a Sunday so everything was closed and I was a bit underwhelmed. Still, my cousin Patrice had chosen to settle here when she came to New Zealand so I felt that there had to be some kind of potential. And I'm glad I did. Nelson sits fairly close to the top of the South Island, and it is a short water taxi ride away from the world renown Abel Tasman National Park. It is the second largest congregation of hippies in New Zealand after the Coromandel, and has a large art scene. However, my favourite two qualities of this town are that it is both the craft beer capital of New Zealand and the sunshine capital. In rainy rainy New Zealand, sunshine is a hot commodity.

So my searches on job boards were narrowed down to Nelson, and now that I am here I have no regrets. The town has a population of about 40 000 which gives it an intimate feel (although there are about 80 000 in the whole Tasman region). It's nestled in a valley that is surrounded by large hills on one side and ocean on the other. The local beach is made of golden sand, and the downtown core is architecturally attractive and pedestrian friendly. There is a Saturday market to rival that of large cities and there is always a venue playing some sort of live music playing somewhere in the city.

I haven't found a job here yet, but I'm reluctant to go chase employment somewhere else when there is so much going on here, and I still haven't made it out to Abel Tasman.  Basically what I'm trying to say here is yay Nelson!