48 Hours Drinking and Eating in Nelson Tasman, New Zealand

The sunshine capital of New Zealand, Nelson Tasman, may not be at the top of everyone’s bucket list when they visit Aotearoa, the Māori world for this country roughly the size of Colorado.

But it should be, especially if you drink craft beer.

Hopheads worldwide can thank Nelson Tasman for some of the industry’s most flavor-provoking green cones, including Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Nectaron, Superdelic, Wai-iti, Rakau, and more. Nelson Tasman and its surrounding areas are literally why your last hazy tasted like lollipops and candied fruits. The intense flavors produced in this hop-growing region are unrivaled anywhere else in the world.

Sitting at roughly 41° latitude, the region around Nelson Tasman is ideal for hop growing (you’ll commonly find hops grown between 32° to 50° latitude). “We’re literally smack in the middle,” says Zane Kennedy, the owner of a premier local tour company called Wine, Art & Wilderness, which, during the busy season, takes around thirteen small groups each day on excursions to breweries and wineries in the area. “You need about fifteen hours of sun per day in this region to get the right mix to grow hops well.”

According to an NIWA report on the climate and weather in Nelson and Tasman, this area on the top of the South Island receives, on average, approximately 2,400 hours of sun per year, among the highest recorded in New Zealand (which is also why you’ll commonly find tubs of sunscreen available for free at any venue with outdoor seating).

Because of its superior hop-growing climate, Nelson Tasman is home to most of New Zealand’s hop farms—many family-owned.

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

Those like Mac Hops, whose fifth-generation owner and farmer, Brent McGlashen, invited us out for a personal tour right in the midst of harvest.

On the day we visited, the farm, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, was knee-deep in Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin.

“We’ve got some incredible Nelson Sauvin up here,” McGlashen readily admits. “We just get such a punchy flavor out of it.” He points to piles of the dried hops preparing for baling in their warehouse. “There’s about eight tons of Nelson Sauvin in that pile.”

“If we do the math right,” Kennedy chimes in, “that’s about 800,000 liters of beer!”

As McGlashen showed us around his newer and older farms, he often paused to chat with his workers. Despite being in the middle of grueling work, every person smiled as he left.

There’s a personal touch at Mac Hops. With some machines over sixty years old (like an old English one from a Guinness farm in the U.K.) and others much newer, McGlashen still very much does things by feel, too, sticking his hands into piles of dried hops to determine which should be mixed based on their moisture content.

At Mac Hops, things are tactile and home-grown, steeped in heritage.

And that honestly mirrors Nelson Tasman, a place as friendly as it is somewhat undiscovered outside of New Zealand.

“Crafty and sunny,” Kennedy says, the two words he’d use to describe Nelson Tasman.

Kennedy, who has been all over New Zealand, ultimately called Nelson Tasman home because of the climate and the outdoors. Home to some of the best mountain biking in the country, one of the most beautiful national parks, and countless breweries, wineries, and top-notch restaurants, Nelson Tasman has long been a vacation destination for Kiwis.

And we think they’re on to something.

“We call [Nelson Tasman] the Sunshine Capital of the World,” says Eddyline Brewery Owner and Brewer Michiel Heynekamp, who moved to the South Island from Colorado because he thought the area was just like his previous home state…but with a coastline.

Heynekamp admits that on his first trip to New Zealand, he never really looked at Nelson Tasman as more than just a place to pass through. “But it was such a cool town,” he recalls. “And I still think it’s the friendliest town in New Zealand. Like, really friendly locals.”

Plus, the love of the outdoors appealed to him. Along with top-tier mountain biking trails, Nelson Tasman has heaps of great kayaking and paddleboarding. “In the morning, you’ll see fifty paddleboarders out there,” Kennedy tells me.

And what’s better after a long day of biking or an afternoon of paddleboarding than a juicy, hazy beer in the heart of a hop capital?

From canyoning in a gorgeous national park to just sitting on the patio of the oldest pub in New Zealand and drinking a schooner, Nelson Tasman and the Nelson Regional Development Agency showed us a region full of little gems. You just have to be willing to travel a little farther to seek them out.

Who knows, after just two days in Nelson Tasman, you might want to move here, too! Here’s everything we did, ate, and drank during our forty-eight hours in Nelson Tasman.

Friday: Brewery Hopping in the Hop Capital

Let’s get things rolling in New Zealand’s land of hops…literally. We recommend planning to land in Nelson Tasman by early afternoon so you can check in to your hotel and take advantage of some afternoon activities.

Hotel Check-In: Rutherford Hotel Nelson

27 Nile Street West, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 548 2299

Photography courtesy of Rutherford Hotel Nelson (top and bottom right) and Hop Culture (bottom left)

2:00 PM You’re Somewhere Special™ – The perfect blend of heritage and history, the Rutherford Hotel Nelson is “where business meets leisure” in Nelson Tasman. The only four-star hotel in the area, the centrally located Rutherford proved to be the perfect place to rest our weary heads at night.

The Rutherford prides itself on top-notch guest service. For instance, when we needed a cab to the airport at the ridiculously early time of 4:30 in the morning, a simple call down to the front desk and the Rutherford took care of everything for us.

The warm hospitality extended to the dining room, where we enjoyed an excellent pub meal in the Port O’Call Bar on our first night and a New Zealand-style breakfast buffet each morning in the Oceano Restaurant. Fresh, local ingredients highlight each menu with standouts like Classic Club Sandwich, Dips and Nibbles plate, and super crispy, yet creamy, Truffled Polenta Sticks.

In our room, The Rutherford welcomed us with a little Nelson Tasman gift basket of fruit and chocolate with a note saying, “You’re Somewhere Special™.” At the Rutherford, with those small homemade touches, we couldn’t agree more.

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Cycle and Sip With Nelson Cycle Hire and Tours

Airport House, Nelson Airport, Nelson 7011, New Zealand | +64 35 39 41 93

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

3:00 PM Gears and beers – Whenever we go somewhere new, we’re big fans of using mobile transportation to explore, whether by bus, metro, train, foot, or, in this case, bike. Because two wheels are better than one or even two feet, right?

Started by Anita and JR Gardner, Nelson Cycle Hire has been taking folks around on two electric wheels for the last fifteen years.

Winners of the 2024 TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award, Nelson Cycle Hire offers the ideal way to explore Nelson Tasman.

Full of dad jokes, JR humorously led our tour along the Great Taste Trail, a year-round bike trail with tasty stops at fruit stalls, cafes, breweries, and winery restaurants.

With everything from half-day jaunts and short rides to single-day or multi-day tours, you can craft your own adventure.

On the single-day side, we highly recommend the Cheers to Beer option, which takes you rolling out of Nelson Airport along the Great Taste Trail on an easy flat ride (also remember you’re on electric bikes) to three local craft breweries with a maximum 20km (12.4 miles) loop.

When we visited, our stops included McCashin’s, Eddyline, and the Free House.

Pro tip: As an optional extra, you can have Nelson Cycle Tour pick you up at your last stop and transfer you to the Free House in the CBD (Central Business District), which is a great place to end your night…more on that below.

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Stop #1: McCashin’s – The OG

15 Elms Street, Stoke, Nelson 7011, New Zealand | +64 3 541 0757

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

After a quick explanation about how to operate the bikes, which includes pushing a button to turn them on (seriously, it’s that easy), we hopped on and followed JR out of Nelson Airport.

A short fifteen-minute pedal along a paved trail took us along Nelson Tasman’s coast, and we reached our first destination—McCashin’s.

Considered a quintessential Kiwi story, McCashin’s started as a cidery in 1941 before adding a brewery in the 1980s. At the time, a duopoly existed in New Zealand, where two big breweries—DB and Lion—controlled most of the beer.

McCashin’s, started by Terry and Bev McCashin, bucked the trend, taking on the big boys in a David vs. Goliath moment. Today, the brewery is primarily considered to have started the craft beer revolution in New Zealand by introducing Mac’s Real Ale in 1981, the first independently Kiwi-brewed beer.

Unpretentious, unfussy, and unflappable, McCashin’s doesn’t shy away from who it is. You won’t find fancy double-dry hopped IPAs or fruited sours here. Instead, McCashin’s Stoke brand, a nod to the eponymous neighborhood, embraces “unashamedly what I would describe as mainstream,” explains McCashin’s Head Brewer Rob Marshall. “It’s accessible.”

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

While looking over the taps, Marshall tells me, “If you said the three most popular, Stoke Hazy [Juicy Pale Ale] would be sitting at number one, followed by [Stoke] IPA and [Stoke] Pilsner.”

That should tell you all you need to know here.

For instance, the hazy pale ale isn’t Vermont-style hazy, explains Marshall. “It’s hazy, but not porridge!” It principally features New Zealand hops like Nectaron and Motueka but also sneaks some Mosaic in there. “We’re not massively bitter; we’re not massively hoppy.”

Similarly, the Stoke IPA is more bitter than the hazy pale but “not massively bitter by any stretch,” says Marshall. Described as more in line with a traditional English IPA, Stoke IPA includes Munich and Crystal malt plus a hop bill of Nelson Sauvin, Wakimea, and Motueka.

“It’s very much a case of stick to your thing,” says Marshall. “We know how to do what we do.”

Hardy and historical, McCashin’s was a great place to start drinking on our trip.

“Stoke is a good introduction, and it’s a good earlier beer to have,” says Zane Kennedy, owner of the premier local tour group, Wine, Art & Wilderness. “You know there’s nothing too big, punchy, or aggressive.”

After a couple of flights and a few nibbles of bread, charcuterie, and cheese, JR whisked us back on our bikes for the next stop. If McCashin’s was a glimpse into Nelson Tasman’s drinking past, then Eddyline is perhaps a gaze into its future.

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Stop #2 + Dinner: Eddyline Brewery

15 Elms Street, Stoke, Nelson 7011, New Zealand | +64 3 541 0757

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

6:00 PM Taps and tacos – When you go down a rapid, the water slows down at the bottom, pooling in a calm space on the side of the river. It’s a safe place where kayakers can regroup, recount a potentially hard ride, and crack a beer if they feel like it—that’s the Eddyline.

“It’s that line where you cross from the fast-flowing water into the slow, calm water,” explains Eddyline Brewery Owner and Brewer Michiel Heynekamp, who used to drive from New Mexico to Colorado with his partner and Eddyline’s other owner, Molley Heynekamp, to go whitewater kayaking. “We’ve had a lot of beers in the eddies!”

As I walked into Eddyline’s second location in Nelson, New Zealand, slightly sweaty from a bike ride across Tasman’s Great Taste Trail, the calm hit me immediately. Fresh hop bines hung on the walls, recently picked, and lights shaped like hops hung from the ceiling. To one side, a chalkboard showed off Eddyline’s current taps—over twenty strong.

Behind the bar, a mountain graphic with curls of waves at the bottom stood tall; rays of light shone over it, seeming to mimic the sun—everything connected to Mic and Molley, American homebrewers who loved the outdoors and for the last ten years have found themselves thousands of miles from “home.”

Eddyline didn’t initially start in New Zealand, but the Buena Vista, CO-based brewery now has two locations in Nelson Tasman. The two brewery owners’ paths have zigged and zagged as much as any whitewater rapids. But they’ve found their Eddyline in a place perhaps they never expected.

At the bottom of the world.

“It’s like you pull out of the busy, fast current of your life into the slow waters of a pub, and you look at where you’ve been, where you’re going, celebrate your wins, cry over your [losses],” says Mic, who met Molley at New Mexico Tech while studying for a master’s degree in geology.

Photography courtesy of Stacey Lee-Weitz | Hop Culture

With research funded by Exxon, Mic fully intended to take a full-time position with the company in Houston when he graduated. But after an orientation in July, he came back thinking, “Holy cow, you have to wear a fancy suit?”

Feeling pretty discouraged, a trip climbing in Southwestern Colorado at one of their favorite mountain ranges revitalized him. “We ended up shutting down this cool little restaurant that had a big window at the brewery,” recalls the homebrewer. “After a couple of beers, I just knocked on the glass, and the brewer came out. I just wanted to ask him some questions, but we ended up staying until one in the morning.”

The pair decided to have a go at opening a brewery.

“But we were just two twenty-five-year-olds with zero money to our name,” shares Mic. “Everyone laughed at us.”

The pair eventually convinced a World War II Marine, who was renovating an old Adobe building in New Mexico, to lease them the space.

“We went to all the dairy farms and just asked farmers if they had any old, spare tanks,” laughs Mic. The pair hodgepodged Socorro Springs Brewing Co. together, opening the brewery in 1999 in Socorro, NM.

Ten years later, they opened Eddyline in Buena Vista, CO.

So how does a couple with brewing origins in New Mexico and a dream to open a brewery in Colorado get halfway across the world to Nelson, New Zealand?

In 2010, Molley and Mic took their first holiday in a decade. They chose New Zealand, driving around in a camper van.

“Oh my god, this is Colorado with a coastline,” says Mic, who pointed out that no craft beer existed in Nelson Tasman then. “Nobody even knew what an IPA was. … The light bulb went off. Holy cow, we know how to make IPA.”

It took two years for the New Zealand government to approve the couple’s business visa. Mic says they received the confirmation email in February 2014 and, by April, had booked a flight to New Zealand.

Over the next decade, the Heynekamps opened their original spot serving pizza and a second location dedicated to New Mexican food, with everything from smothered burrito plates and nachos to tacos and enchiladas.

“We import all that red chili from New Mexico, and our red chili—oh, wow. It’s like a super authentic New Mexican food,” says Eddyline General Manager Tiare Donelan, noting they also carry the popular green hatchback chilies.

So, while we didn’t have time to stop at Eddyline for food, we highly recommend you do.

As for the beer, get yourself a tasting paddle and settle in. Remember how we said there were over twenty taps? Go for the Roaring 40’s Porter or GorgeJuice Hazy IPA, a mashup made to sound like gorgeous. “Whenever you’re in a gorge, it’s the most gorgeous place on Earth,” says Mic, who has kayaked the Grand Canyon twice.

Now might be the perfect time to go to Eddyline, because if they have anything fresh-hop on, grab it. Two of Eddyline’s fresh-hop beers won a bronze and silver at the Untappd Community Awards last year.

While we were just a touch early for fresh-hop (they’d actually brewed the beer earlier in the day before we visited), we couldn’t pass on the CrankYanker. Eddyline’s first-ever beer evolved from one of Mic’s homebrewing recipes, a fifteen-gallon batch he’d brew for weekly Friday potlucks where he asked friends to leave comments on what they thought.

A more modern West Coast IPA with less bitterness and more maltiness, CrankYanker “is that time you’re cranking, just grinding your way up the hill, thinking about the beer you’re going to have when you get to the bottom,” says Mic.

And that’s what Eddyline is all about.

“It’s really just to celebrate our wins,” says Mic. “Whether you just go for a casual, quick run up the hill and back down, or you’re doing a giant epic ride, you’re going to finish it with a beer, right?”

Do it at Eddyline.

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Stop #3: The Free House

95 Collingwood Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 35 48 93 91

Photography courtesy of Neat Places

6:00 PM Amen to real ale – You can’t go to Nelson without visiting The Free House pub. Period. End of sentence. Don’t argue with us—sermon over.

So it makes sense that after we dropped our e-bikes back at the airport, JR shuttled us into the van and over to The Free House.

Housed in an old church, the pub has become an institution in Nelson.

Walk under the wrought vine-covered iron gate, and a cream stucco building with navy and red trim emerges. Round the corner, wooden doors open to what looks like a church hall basement. A corkboard on the wall promotes local events like yoga, and a creaky foldout table sports brochures for Nelson’s Fringe Festival and a free craft beer magazine called the Pursuit of Hoppiness.

Wooden mess-hall-like benches lead to a tiny bustling bar with three beer engines and ten rainbow-colored taps. A decision The Free House Owner Eelco Boswijk made because he says, “I like color!”

We settled into one of the tables with Townshend ESB on cask and an 8 Wired Blossom, an ode-to-spring blonde ale brewed with a bouquet of actual flowers and local Matakana honey.

The Free House evolved sixteen years ago out of necessity.

“There was no craft beer available in Nelson when we opened,” says Boswijk, who first started doing little quarterly beer events “hoping somebody would open a pub.” It turns out no one did.

An event with 350 people grew to 1,100 by the eighth one. Clearly, people were interested, with some flying into Nelson Tasman from around the country just for that one night, according to Boswijk. “They were fun days,” he says with a particular cartoon-like gleam in his eye. “People just kept coming.”

Opening The Free House ensured they always had a place to go.

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

Boswijk has a past as colorful as the taps behind his bar. Born in Nelson Tasman to a family whom several people pointed out to me owned the town’s legendary first coffee house—Chez Eelco coffee house—Boswijk moved to Perth to make clothes. On a trip to buy silk in China in 1987, Boswijk just decided to stay. “I didn’t buy silk; I just spent money traveling,” he laughs. Six months later, Boswijk crossed into Pakistan, where he got sick enough that he had to fly to London to get medical treatment. Within a week of living there, he bumped into a childhood friend while walking down Kensington High Street. Again, he just decided to stay. It’s here that Boswijk developed a taste for real ale.

Sometime later, after our beers are a little lower, Boswijk drops that he’s also lived in the Cayman Islands. I’m confident if I’d had more time to chat, I would have discovered many more stories.

The Free House is a house built out of beliefs. But not the kind you think.

The little former church we were drinking in hasn’t housed congregants of a religion (other than drinking) since 1998, transforming into a seamstress shop and then someone’s home before Boswijk snapped it up.

“It has been a church of many lives,” my partner quips.

If the secondhand furniture could talk, it would have some stories to tell. Like the old chairs from Starbucks, Boswijk points out at a round table nearby. He explains how Australia’s proud coffee-drinking culture threw Starbucks out when it tried to come to the country. “They were really cheap,” he says with a smile.

Today, Boswijk calls The Free House a “third space” where people can meet and talk. “We sell beer because it helps people talk to each other,” says Boswijk slyly before admitting that it also “pays the bills.”

But mostly, The Free House is a space for people to connect, “a little oasis shut off from the outside world,” says Boswijk, pointing out there are no screens inside and that the entire sound system for the pub sits in a tiny beatbox up on the wall with a toy car. “Because it’s all about talking.”

In 2021, Boswijk branched out even further, installing a small 400L kettle and 500L tank brewery called the Flavourtorium. Most days, the doors on a used 40ft shipping container that houses the rainbow-jacketed brew kit are rolled up in plain view for drinkers on the patio.

The small size means The Free House can brew pretty much whatever they want—like the 4.2% It’s Getting Kind Hefe hefeweizen on tap when we visited.

But Boswijk’s love of real ale leads him to call the Flavourtorium’s dark mild the beer he’s most proud of.

“People would sit and drink three, four, five, six pints happily,” he beams.

As we finish our beers, I notice a painting on the opposite wall just over Boswijk’s shoulder. When I ask the world-traveling pub owner, he says it’s called the Last Supper, a personal rendition from a basketball player who plays for New Zealand’s national team. He agreed to loan it to The Free House because he’s always traveling. “It’ll stay here until he’s ready to take it away,” says Boswijk.

This feels exactly right because, at The Free House, you can come as you are, stay as long as you like, talk to people, sit quietly and listen to people, drink a few pints of dark mild, and when you’re ready to go home, hopefully, leave a little happier.

Everything here is an answer to our prayers.

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Saturday: Whisked Around With Wine, Art & Wilderness

Photography courtesy of Moutere Hills Restaurant

From picking fresh hops in a hop field to drinking beer at a top-notch winery (yes, you heard us right) to visiting New Zealand’s oldest pub, we’re hopping all over Nelson Tasman today.

While you could do this on your own, we highly recommend taking all the stress out of planning and putting yourself into the hands of Wine, Art & Wilderness.

One of our go-to moves whenever we visit a new place is to ask our Uber drivers about their favorite spots.

Consider Zane and Elissa Kennedy and their team your own personal Uber drivers…for the entire day. Only you get driven around in a luxurious Mercedes.

Their fully catered excursions cover everything from nature and adventure to wine, beer, and art. But their most popular tours go to Abel Tasman National Park, especially the Abel Tasman Kayak, Walk & Cruise, which includes kayaking in the morning and a hike in the afternoon. “That’s a wicked tour,” says Zane Kennedy, noting the second most popular are the wine tours.

Kennedy caps all tours at six people, ensuring they’re super intimate. “The last thing we want to do is make people feel like sheeple,” laughs Kennedy.

I’m convinced no one knows this area better than Kennedy, who grew up traveling the South Island in the native bush seed collecting for his father’s tree nursery.

“I guess I have a pretty strong interest in all things Kiwi,” laughs Kennedy, who says his dad’s motto is that you must see your own country before leaving home. “Maybe I listened to him a bit too much!”

Kennedy’s dad eventually sold the tree business, returned to school for tourism, and ran fine wine stores selling craft beer. He started Wine, Art & Wilderness twenty years ago when Kennedy bought him a business that had gone broke as a Christmas present.

Two decades later, Wine, Art & Wilderness tours remain the premier way to explore Nelson Tasman in luxury.

Whatever you decide to do on your tour, you will be wined, dined, and refined. And you’ll learn something new about Nelson Tasman and the surrounding area.

You’re going to feel like a VIP for the day. And who wants to say no to that?

Here’s everywhere Kennedy took me…

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Breakfast + Coffee: Ruby’s

Akersten Street, Port Nelson, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 2 7 226 8434

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

9:00 AM Morning cups in the marina – There might be no prettier place to grab a long black or flat white and a cheese roll or bagel than the shining jewel of Nelson Tasman’s coffee scene. Set up in a teal shipping container, Ruby’s is “one of our favorite coffee shops,” says Kennedy, who notes Nelson Tasman has a fantastic coffee culture.

Starting in 2020, a week before the pandemic shutdown, Ruby’s was originally just a silver coffee cart. The brightly colored shipping container arrived in 2022.

In just about a half-decade, the tiny coffee-cart-cum-container has buzzed. When we visited on a Thursday mid-morning, almost every single seat—from the old art-school stools around barrels to deck lounge chairs overlooking the water—was filled.

I snagged a long black, sipping on the warm, rich Sublime 52 Blend while I simmered in the sun shining off the Marina (and immediately applied more sunscreen).

Espresso stampers pounded out a steady rhythm, punctured only by laughter and conversation.

“This is a nice, relaxing place,” says Ruby’s Manager François Durand. “You come here to enjoy the sun…relax, and drink coffee outside.”

Foodwise, Durand told me that owners Jo and Greg McCrostie do everything behind the scenes. “All the food is homemade,” he explains. “They bake everything; that’s what they do.”

Durand recommends the cheese roll that they toast with some butter.

“It’s very popular; we sell it out pretty much every day,” he says.

If they have them, get the Southern cheese rolls. “We call it Southern sushi,” Kennedy chimes in. It’s basically white bread with lots of butter and cheese toasted. “It’s really bad for you!”

But at a place as precious as Ruby’s, nobody cares.

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Gardens and Galleries

Queen’s Gardens: Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 546 0200
The Suter Art Gallery: 208 Bridge Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 548 4699

Photography courtesy of www.nelsontasman.nz

10:00 AM Morning jaunt in the garden – Whenever we travel, there are a few things we always look for: beans (great coffee), books (quirky bookstores), beer (obviously), and botanical gardens. Why? Because we can’t resist a quiet moment walking through nature.

Nelson Tasman has its own botanical oasis named after Queen Victoria. In Queen’s Gardens, stroll over bridges, through pathways guarded by New Zealand’s national symbol, the silver fern, and along little ponds.

While we walk, Kennedy shares more about New Zealand’s history. The land formed almost 140 million years ago. “The theory is that all New Zealand was underwater,” explains Kennedy. “That’s why we’ve got no native animals other than birds…they all would have flown here; it’s the only way they could have gotten here.”

Queen’s Gardens on the top and Suter Art Gallery on the bottom | Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

In fact, according to Kennedy, New Zealand has the most flightless birds in the world because once they got here, there were no predators to fight against, so they lost their ability to fly. Those like the Kiwi, which are extremely difficult to see in the wild. “Maybe one in thirty New Zealanders have seen one,” says Kennedy. “They’re nocturnal, rare, and don’t like people.”

Needless to say, we did not see a Kiwi in Queen’s Gardens. But we did encounter the Kawakawa, a plant for which the Māori had twenty-one different medicinal uses. Or the silver fern, a plant whose leaves have a fine shimmering silver sheen on one side. Kennedy explains that the Māori would use the silver fern to mark new paths. “We call it the Hansel and Gretel fern because they used it like breadcrumbs,” he says. “They’d line the path with the silver side up so it would glow in the sunlight.”

As we completed our circuit of the park, we ended at The Suter Art Gallery, named after Bishop Suter, the second bishop to Nelson Tasman from England, arriving in the 1860s. Wander inside and take a look at the exhibits.

Pro Tip: Museums in New Zealand are free for residents, and most are free for visitors. Often, they only ask for a donation, if anything at all.

Learn More about Queen’s Gardens

Learn More about The Suter Art Gallery

Cool and Quirky Lifesize Museum

Founder’s Heritage Park: Founders Park 87 Atawhai Drive, The Wood, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 548 2649

Photography courtesy of www.nelsontasman.nz and Bare Kiwi

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

11:00 AM History at home – If you’re one of those who likes to stop by the side of the road to take a photo by America’s largest ball of twine, you’ll love Founder’s Heritage Park.

A collection of old buildings set to be demolished, Founder’s Heritage Park is now home to all rescued structures. Everything from an old bank and brewery to a nunnery and firehouse. Most structures you can walk into, and some just house other businesses.

This is just a quirky place to walk around, take in the sights, and soak up some Nelson Tasman history.

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Lunch: Moutere Hills Restaurant and Cellar Door

42 Eggers Road, Upper Moutere 7173, New Zealand | +64 3 543 2288

Photography courtesy of Moutere Hills Restaurant (on the top right and bottom) and Hop Culture (on the top left)

12:00 PM Vines, bines, and dines – A little slice of Nelson Tasman, Moutere Hills Restaurant sources everything as locally as possible from farm to plate. From our seat on the patio, we can see a little bit of everything—vines, bines, and hills in the distance.

New owner Jeremy Watson left Auckland with his partner, Imogen Witt, moving to Nelson Tasman to escape the city. As he placed a stunning plate of falafel before me, he gestured toward our equally spectacular view. “You can see why we’re here,” he says with a smile. “We have it all—wine, produce, climate—it’s a great place to be.”

Watson says they use all local food as much as possible at Moutere Hills.

For instance, a local bread dish we ordered included sourdough, butter, and olive oil from local company Neudorf Olives.

I’m a sucker for falafel. I eat it probably once a week at home in California, trying versions all across the East Bay. I’ve also gotten the chickpea or fava fried balls at food stands in Jerusalem, eaten one of the best falafel sandwiches at a cart in Amsterdam, and sought out these Middle Eastern delicacies throughout New York City. But I’ve never seen a plate of falafel as beautiful as the one at Moutere Hills.

The quenelles of chickpea, coriander, parsley, and cumin landed in front of me, garnished with seasonal fruit, pickled vegetables, and cubes of locally made plant-based feta. Watson explains that they soak the chickpeas overnight before blending them with the spices and baking them in the oven right before being served. A sauce underneath is a classic romesco recipe, “However, we make this with hazelnuts instead of almonds,” Watson confirms with me in an email after our visit, “This [dish] is finished with fresh greens from the garden [and] locally grown and smoked porcini oil.”

The umami-forward surprises, incredible views, excellent wine list, and warm hospitality make you never want to leave Moutere Hills.

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Dessert: Moutere Strawberries

20 Neudorf Road, Upper Moutere 7175, New Zealand | +64 27 767 6470

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

1:30 PM Fruit ice cream – As we pull out of Moutere Hills, Kennedy asks me if I’ve ever had fruit ice cream.

“Do you mean ice cream with fruit?” I respond. Of course, I’ve had that. Hello, Cherry Garcia. But no no no, that’s not what he means. Fruit ice cream isn’t pieces of fruit stuck into a frozen dairy treat. Fruit ice cream is a New Zealand delicacy that blends sweet frozen fruit and ice cream together…all in one cone.

A beautiful little shack on the side of the road, Moutere Strawberries sells fresh fruit and huge cones of this fruit ice cream.

I go for the most-popular mixed berry, including blueberry, blackberry, and strawberry.

The luxuriously twirled spire of creamy deliciousness looks like the fro-yo you repeatedly served yourself in the dorm dining hall, but it has a vibrancy and freshness that those halcyon cones could never touch with a ten-foot pole.

This mixed berry fruit ice cream cone was single-handedly one of the best things I put in my mouth during my whole trip to Nelson Tasman (and maybe all of New Zealand).

“It started here in Nelson,” Kennedy explains as we walk back to the car, sticky melted ice cream dribbling down the corners of our mouths. “The first of those machines, that little gem, was designed here for one of the vineyards up the road.”

With fresh fruit right in the recipe, I tell Kennedy, “It’s basically healthy.”

He responds, “Exactly! That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.”

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Drinks: Moutere Inn

1406 Moutere Highway, Upper Moutere 7175, New Zealand | +64 3 543 2759

Photography courtesy of Neat Places (on the top) and Hop Culture (on the bottom)

2:00 PM New Zealand’s oldest pub – The title for the oldest pub in New Zealand is a bit of a controversial subject. Kennedy says four pubs have put in a claim, but Moutere Inn is definitely the oldest pub still in its original building. “This is genuinely the oldest in its original setting,” he says.

And you can see the history as soon as you walk in. I get these lake-lodge-meet-English-pub vibes. The wooden bar sports three beer engines for real ales, along with a bunch of other draft taps.

On the wall, a glass case full of cards, some turned over, some not. The bartender explains to me the rules of Chase the Ace. Every Wednesday, the bar sells twenty-five two-dollar tickets. If they pull your raffle, you get to pick a card. Uncover the Ace of Spades and win the pot.

To drink, Kennedy suggests the Cassels milk stout (“one of the best in the world,” he says). But I ordered a Townshend Sutton Hoo on cask, drinking it leisurely under the sun on the patio.

While the outside garden is pretty empty during our weekday visit, Kennedy assures me that, come the weekend, especially in the summer, mountain bikers, motorcyclists, and classic car enthusiasts will all stop by the Moutere Inn for lunch and a beer.

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Shop & Stroll at Māpua Wharf

6 Iwa Street, Māpua 7005, New Zealand

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

3:30 PM Shop or swim? – A destination about fifteen minutes outside Nelson City, Māpua is considered a popular Kiwi vacation destination. “The beaches and waters here are really calm,” says Kennedy. “And they have a great little market on Sunday.”

We didn’t happen to visit on Sunday, but there are still plenty of cute boutiques, businesses, eateries, and breweries to visit at the Māpua Wharf. Originally big refrigeration units to store another popular Nelson Tasman crop—apples—the warehouses on the wharf have turned into galleries and retail stores.

Located right on the water, Māpua Wharf is idyllic. During the summer, the tides are so big that the water flows outward, moving quickly enough for kids to jump off the wharf and float down to the beach. “Mom and dad will wait down there with the pickup truck, bring them back around, and away they go again,” says Kennedy.

After people-watching and store-browsing, grab another beer at Golden Bear Brewing Company, a “good little brewery right on the water,” says Kennedy.

Photography courtesy of Neat Places

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Drinks: Sprig & Fern (multiple locations)

Locations everywhere! Just Google it!

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

4:30 PM Drink at an institution – With over ten locations in Nelson Tasman alone (and more all across New Zealand), Sprig & Fern has become a local institution. Started by UK native Tracy Banner, Sprig & Fern borrows pub rules with Kiwi flare. While the bar brand has franchised other locations, each with its own local personality, some ground rules remain the same: no TVs, no games, and no poker machines. “Just good beer and good conversation,” says Kennedy.

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Dinner: Eight Plates

300 Trafalgar Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 546 4300

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

4:30 PM Around the world in eight plates – I ended the night in the heart of one of Nelson Tasman’s most innovative restaurants. Helmed by Pete Coates, Eight Plates opened in 2023, focusing on cocktails and small plates. With each small bite, you’ll travel the world, whether it’s a house flatbread with beetroot and caramelized onion that has a ceiling-high cheese pull or cubes of crispy tofu and daikon with an intense umami hit of soy and sesame. And those zucchini fries? Little crispy sticks of pure salty goodness. I dare you to eat just one.

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Sunday: Flip, Dip, Slip, Slide, and Swim

Cleopatra’s Pool at Abel Tasman National Park | Photography courtesy of www.nelsontasman.nz

We did things a bit differently for our last day in Nelson Tasman. Usually, we’d give you another list of all the great places to eat and drink. But with arguably New Zealand’s most picturesque national park, Abel Tasman, about a forty-five-minute drive away, we devoted ourselves to a healthy-dose-of-nature day.

Canyoning in a National Park

https://www.abeltasmancanyons.co.nz/

Photography courtesy of Abel Tasman Canyons

We highly recommend the canyoning adventures from Abel Tasman Canyons. It’s one of the best, most thrilling ways to see one of the most beautiful national parks in New Zealand.

To get to the park, your best bet is to book a spot on The Better Bus, another of Kennedy’s businesses that he describes as the “backpack of transport.”

The shuttle service combined all the operators in the area. According to Kennedy, instead of running twelve not-always-full vehicles a day, The Better Bus just runs what it needs to reach capacity, reducing the carbon footprint by seventy-three percent.

Photography courtesy of Abel Tasman Canyons

Your canyoning guides will meet you at the dropoff point for The Better Bus. After a quick wetsuit fitting, a tractor pulls your Abel Tasman Water Taxi into the water, and you’re whisked to Abel Tasman by boat in about fifteen minutes.

A little ways off the pristine beach and sparkling turquoise waters, you shed yourself of all devices, stripping to the bare minimum: swimsuit, sneakers, hat, and, of course, sunscreen.

With your wetsuit and helmet strapped to your back, you set off on an hour-and-a-half hike into the park. Along the way, our guide, Jono, shared some history and culture of the area. Weaving our way up and through the park, we eventually head off the road on a path only for those canyoning. After a final steep descent, we emerge to a large rock plateau next to a waterfall, the perfect place for a quick picnic.

After we stuff sandwiches into our faces, we finally get into our wetsuits. A quick safety course, and we’re fully submerging our bodies in icy cold water and swimming to our first repel.

For the next three hours, we flip, dip, slip, slide, zipline, and swim through this canyon. There is only one way out—and that is through!

Every step of the way, our guides, Jono and Joel, make sure we feel safe and supported, expertly showing us how to complete each task and often giving multiple options for those with nerves less than steel.

Highlights included cannonballing eight meters (twenty-six feet) off a rock ledge, sliding down multiple waterfalls, and ziplining across the river.

When we finally reached our end point at Cleopatra’s Pool, a popular swimming hole in the park, Jono passed out little chocolates while Joel introduced us to one of New Zealand’s rare blue ducks. We even saw an eel!

After another thirty-minute hike back to the beach, we plopped our sore, sun-soaked bodies into the water taxi for the long journey home, excited to relive all the adventures over some beers and dinner.

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Drinks: Hop Federation

627 Main Road, Riwaka 7198, New Zealand | +64 3 528 0637

Photography courtesy of www.nelsontasman.nz and Bare Kiwi

4:30 PM Drinking the heart of hop country – If you have the energy (which we did not at this point), stop by Hop Federation on the way home. Called “a craft brewery in the heart of hop country,” Hop Federation started when a couple of Aucklanders moved from the big city to Nelson Tasman. In 2013, the brewery opened with just four New Zealand-style ales.

Located in Riwaka, Hop Federation is the prime spot to grab a couple of cold ones after a day in Abel Tasman or mountain biking some of the epic local trails. Plus, the taproom is just off the Great Taste Cycle Trail.

All roads lead to Hop Federation, where you can now find way more than four beers on tap from a hazy IPA, NZIPA, and red IPA to a pilsner, stout, and pale ale, to name a few.

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Dinner: East St.

8 Church Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand | +64 3 970 0575

Photography courtesy of Neat Places

Photography courtesy of Hop Culture

7:30 PM Funky fare – This quirky, funky vegetarian spot is a plant lovers’ planetarium. Small bites like bahn mi bites and “Hip To Be Square” crispy polenta cubes get the taste buds tingling at East St. While larger plates like the Bok Bok Burger with beetroot bun, hot plate teriyaki ‘Plant’ chicken, pineapple, red kraut, and satay, and Lucky Laksa with Laksa broth, vermicelli noodles, and a ton of veggies, pop with tons of flavor.

After spending a full day ducking and diving around Abel Tasman, East St. filled us up with great food and good vibes.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to check the specials board written in chalk above the pass.

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