Friday 18 February 2011

Nelson Feb 18th

As yesterday was a day of driving, today we set off for the beach to have a bit of relaxing. Our landlady suggested “Rabbit Island” a few Kms up the road. When we got there the place was deserted and all we had as company was this pyramid of logs that someone had put up the night before. I added a few more to help the structure along, as Ann went in the sea for her first dip.  The high tide was expected at 11am and it was now about 10.30.  As the tide came in, gradually the wood was disturbed until the structure slowly collapsed back to driftwood on the beach. (of which there are vast amounts). I joined Ann on her second swim, but as I had no costume, I decided to skinny dip……… no photos there then! On the way back to Nelson we passed this crazy car plant pot…. At least you slow down and maybe spot the B&B sign near it.
We then went into Nelson to visit the WoW museum. That stands for World of Wearable Art (and classic car) Museum. We were not allowed to take photos in the Wearable Art side of the museum, but in the car side it was OK. Many of the exhibits also had Wearable Art manikins between the cars so I took photos of those to give you an idea of what was on offer. This was wacky and at the same time so much skill had gone into making the costumes to be most impressive. The bizarre bra collection had examples called “Honey… suckle on these”… flowers and humming birds. Also “freshly squeezed”… which you can see in the photos has a lemon squeezer and fruit. Ann thought it would be better to be called “Squeeze me”. There was also a version that had two cranes perched on each shoulder and ensuring the perfect “Uplifting” experience….. etc etc. Has to be seen to be believed.  WoW Museum
Later we went through the car part of the exhibition and although many cars were American, there were enough English and European cars to bring back many memories. The whole display was well thought out and superbly executed with good backdrops to support the theme of the cars. Out the back was another section of about 150 classic cars and a restoration garage where they sort them out. I have included in the photos the cars that most impressed me or brought back fond memories from my youth. The car I first learnt to drive in (Ford Escort)….. The Rover coupe that Dad had….. The Austin A40 Farina we owned for two weeks… it lost 2nd and 3rd gear going between London and Southampton… it went back! And the best of all the Jag Mk9 that they were in the process of restoring. Dad had one of these in Birmingham before we went south to Hampshire.  The visit ended in me sitting in a DeLorean and setting the camera for delayed exposure. Just had to be done!
We then drove into town /city to see the Cathedral and other sights. Just to prove a point a rather classic car drove past as we were approaching the Cathedral. Great architecture and quite new being only about 50 years since the last refurb.
Nelson has many links with Nelson himself and the city roads are named after his battles, colleagues and ships. To round off the day we returned to the local beach but it was too windy to swim and it was low tide. So Ann settled down in the sand dunes and I took photos of the kite surfers.  Photos here.

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