Mapua

Mapua is a tiny little seaside place near Nelson, clearly being developed as leisurely retirement complexes - so it has golf courses, parks, boardwalks, and endless tat shops, restaurants and cafes. Many of these seemed to be closed or offering well above 'poor tourist' fare, so I ended up with a sandwich from the local BP.

Even the place I was staying in was called 'Stay at the Art Gallery', and it literally was - a shop with some expensive 'art', and then a sectioned back part of the gallery but which also housed a bed. How this played with art shoppers I can't say, but I had bought the right to shut off the connecting door for a night. 

Sharing the room with all the art was tough: the stuff on the walls was weird enough, but there was also stuff on every surface ... which I just pushed aside in best 'Hotel Inspector' style. ('People want space to put their stuff on...') The worst thing (and not advertised) was that the 'bathroom' was a separate part of the complex, again shared with the shop, requiring planning for going outside and taking towels, clothes and washbag with you. That was annoying enough during the day but was particularly tough in the middle of the night.

I didn't photograph the accommodation - I was just too glad to get out - but here are a few of the artworks, with their ridiculous price tags.