Read about and view pictures of New Zealand
towns and cities.
We live in Nelson and, as such, it deserves its own page for us to showcase its special charm. Nelson's Māori name is Whakatū, meaning "home."
Where is Nelson? At the top of the South Island. This map shows you the towns all around the region, many of the places you've heard us speak about. If you hold your cursor over town names, you can link to our Destinations section to learn more about that particular town.
The photo is pretty old, and worse even, an older scan. But, the photo shows the very basics of the city from the northeast. If you hold your cursor over the photo, you'll see some descriptions of places and neighbourhoods. We'll look for a better photo to show you the difference with all the new development. For example, you can't see Tahunanui Beach on this shot, any of the Atawhai neighbourhoods off to the east (left) or over to where we are living now in Wakatu.
This one was taken by Don and we've pieced it together as best as possible. You see down onto the CBD and Nelson City.
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We kiped this one of the great Wikipedia page of Nelson. Not too different from Don's! 'Cept it's in one piece. It's from the same vantage point, Centre of New Zealand.
The City of Nelson stands on the southern shore of Tasman Bay, at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand and is the administrative centre of the Nelson region. Nelson is New Zealand's second oldest city, being settled in 1841. It received its name in honour of the 1st Viscount Lord Horatio Nelson and Admiral of the fleet that defeated both the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Many of the roads and public areas around the city are named after people and ships associated with that battle and Trafalgar Street is the main shopping axis of the city. Inhabitants of Nelson are referred to as Nelsonians.
The Nelson urban agglomeration (including the fast-growing adjacent town of Richmond) has a population of approximately 60,000 - and has recently had a population growth rate exceeding any other population centre in New Zealand.
Nelson is a centre for arts and crafts, and each year hosts popular events such as the Nelson Arts Festival. The annual Wearable Art Awards were begun in Nelson and there is a Museum of Wearable Arts showcasing winning designs close to the Airport.
Nelson is the birthplace of Lord Rutherford, the Nobel prize-winning physicist whose image appears on New Zealand's one hundred dollar banknote (the largest denomination in circulation in New Zealand).
Nelson is surrounded by mountains on three sides with Tasman Bay on the other. It functions as the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park, Kahurangi National Park, and Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa in the Nelson Lakes National Park. It is a centre for both ecotourism and adventure tourism, and has a high reputation among caving enthusiasts due to several prominent cave systems around Takaka Hill and Mount Owen.
Many people believe Nelson has the best climate in New Zealand, in that it regularly tops the national statistics for sunshine hours, with an annual average total of over 2400 hours.
The information below is taken from Wikipedia's page of Nelson [where you can read additional information], and we have plans to augment the history below in time using Jim McAloon's book, Nelson: A Regional History.
Settlement of Nelson began about 1100 years ago by Māori. There is evidence the earliest settlements in New Zealand are around the Nelson-Marlborough regions. The earliest recorded iwi [Māori tribes] in the Nelson district are the Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Tumatakokiri, Ngāti Apa and Rangitane tribes.
Raids from northern tribes in the 1820s, led by Te Rauparaha and his Ngāti Toa, soon decimated the local population and quickly displaced them.
The New Zealand Company in London planned the settlement of Nelson. They intended to buy cheaply from the Māori some 200,000 acres (800 km²) which they planned to divide into one thousand lots and sell (at a considerable profit) to intending settlers. The Company earmarked future profits to finance the free passage of artisans and labourers and their families, and for the construction of public works. However by September 1841 only about one third of the lots had sold. Despite this the Colony pushed ahead.
Three ships sailed from London under the command of Captain Arthur Wakefield. Arriving in New Zealand, they discovered that the new Governor of the colony, William Hobson would not give them a free hand to secure vast areas of land from the Māori or indeed to decide where to site the colony. However, after some delay, Hobson allowed the Company to investigate the Tasman Bay area at the north end of the South Island. The Company selected the site now occupied by Nelson City because it had the best harbour in the area. But it had a major drawback: it lacked suitable arable land; Nelson City stands right on the edge of a mountain range while the nearby Waimea Plains amount to only about 60,000 acres (243 km²), less than one third of the area required by the Company plans.
The Company secured from the Māori for £800 a vague and undetermined area, but including Nelson, Waimea, Motueka, Riwaka and Whakapuaka. This allowed the settlement to begin, but the lack of definition would prove the source of much future conflict. The three colony ships sailed into Nelson Haven during the first week of November 1841. When the four first immigrant ships arrived three months later they found the town already laid out with streets, some wooden houses, tents and rough sheds. These ships were the Fifeshire, the Mary-Ann, the Lord Auckland and the Lloyds. Within eighteen months the Company had sent out eighteen ships with 1052 men, 872 women and 1384 children. However, fewer than ninety of the settlers had the capital to start as landowners.
Notably, the early settlement of Nelson province included a proportion of German immigrants, who arrived on the ship Sankt Pauli and formed the nucleus of the villages of Sarau (Upper Moutere) and Neudorf.
After a brief initial period of prosperity the inherent problems, the lack of land and the lack of capital caught up with the settlement and it entered a prolonged period of relative depression. Organised immigration ceased until the 1850s and the laborers had to accept a cut in their wages by a third. By the end of 1843 artisans and laborers began leaving Nelson and by 1846 some twenty five percent of the immigrants had moved away.
The pressure to find more arable land became intense. To the south-east of Nelson lay the wide and fertile plains of the Wairau Valley. The New Zealand Company tried to claim that they had purchased the land. The Māori owners stated quite adamantly that the Wairau Valley had not formed part of the original land sale and made it clear they would resist any attempts by the settlers to occupy the area. The Nelson settlers led by Arthur Wakefield and Henry Thompson attempted to do just that. This resulted in the Wairau Affray, wherein twenty-two settlers died. The subsequent Government enquiry exonerated the Māori and found that the Nelson settlers had no legitimate claim to any land outside Tasman Bay.
More to come!
