Afternoon Excursion
Tonight, my day off, Nina and I headed up the Maitai River to the dam just outside of Nelson. The water for Nelson and Richmond is stored here before heading down to a treatment plant. The drive up there is very cool. After leaving our place, it took 2 minutes to get to the CBD and 30 seconds to get through it. On the other side, we drove for 3 minutes through a neighborhood before heading along the river. Just outside of town, which is really still pretty much it town is a narrow river valley with a road and parks through it for a few miles. Then we were in the country. The change of landscape took about 4 minutes from being coastal Nelson, to being in hilly country. The dam is about 20 minutes up a gravel road from downtown Nelson. When we got there we drove up and say a sign that said “Tame Deer, No Shooting.” That was cool, I have never seen anything like that. At the top of the hill, we got out as a man on a 4×4 with a pack of dogs following him roared up from the other side and he said the deer would come up to us as he headed further up to his house. A few minutes later, he came back down to show us his Red Deer. He turned out to be the caretaker of the dam and had kept a small herd of deer as pets. They liked to be hosed down on hot days and they wandered up when he was there and got a little shower. In the classic NZ style, he was very friendly and wanted to show us his deer and feel welcome. We then headed down to the dam itself and hiked to the top of it. It was just an earthen dam holding back what seemed like a very small amount of water. But then again the Maitai is a pretty small river. The valley was beautiful having a mix of native and exotic trees. It would be a very nice place for an afternoon picnic and a swim. Below are pictures of the caretaker and his Red Deer.
Tags: Travel
frosaker
Can’t believe the deer story….glad you had pictures!