Stuff: Following the artists’ trail in Tasman and the sparkling Ruby Coast
A cheeky little mention of us and many of our friends/neighbours in this lovely article about our very special district. If you’re planning to visit us, leave time to check out many of the businesses mentioned below - we’ve added links to help you find them!
“Sometimes when you really need a weekend away, organising yourself to get there is the hardest part. And so it was in the lead-up to my two-night stay in Tasman’s Mahana/Māpua region. So, by the time we found ourselves driving through the green and gently-rolling Tasman Hills, I was ready to collapse-relax into the experience.
This region, also known for its hop-growing and apple orchards, is home to Neudorf Vineyards, Gravity Winery, Laska Cellars, Flaxmore, Ruby Bay, Moutere Hills Vineyard ... the list goes on.
We were staying in a little boutique cottage, one of five just down the hill from owner Chris Warren’s own home. From afar, the cottages seem like ducklings clustered at the feet of their mother – all with the same style brickwork as the main house, just smaller.
Up close, they have a quirky distinguishing feature – each has its own patterns in the cladding. We were staying in Cottage Five – noughts and crosses. The others are diamond, zip, rows and sawtooth designs.
Warren says he just wanted “something a little bit different” when he was playing around with the cladding designs. Overall, his aim for the newly opened accommodation, named for his daughters Tilly and Verity, was for something “bespoke and beautiful”.
After a delicious inspection of our new home – in which my daughter delighted at the croissants available for the provided next-day breakfast, and I delighted at the spacious shower and the 1000-thread count Egyptian cotton bedsheets – we forced ourselves back out the door to dinner at New Zealand’s oldest pub.
The Moutere Inn seemed to be full of locals, or at least people who knew each other and were cheerily chatting between tables.
I had a perfectly good burger from the traditional pub menu. The inn offers craft beers from Nelson Tasman-grown hops, and its wine selection is all from vineyards within 10km of the pub. In continuous operation since 1850, they seem to have the recipe right.
The next day, after enjoying the bedlinen, shower, and the croissants and coffee in our own little courtyard, we headed to the village of Upper Moutere itself.
We had a walk through the cemetery before the gallery of ceramic artists Katie Gold and Owen Bartlett opened. I love orienting myself to small towns by taking a graveside walk. In this case, we saw plenty of Sigglekows and Bensemanns, attesting to 19th century German settler heritage in the area.
For many people, a getaway to this part of New Zealand is all about the wineries, but our weekend turned out to be more about eating, shopping, and admiring the creativity of local artists and artisans.
The gallery of Katie Gold, with her psychedelic clay art, and her partner Owen Bartlett, whose equally colourful but slightly more prosaic tableware, was a great place to start. The fact you can visit their 130-year-old rambling rose-covered home makes it feel like you’re part of the creativity.
Across the road, we called in on the Old Post Office Food Store and Market, home of Moutere Gold preserves and lots of other locally-made cheeses and other divine pantry goods.
“It’s such a pretty place, you’re happy just being there,” said one TripAdvisor reviewer. Which I agree with, as I browse woven baskets, linen bags, vine wreaths and whimsical art prints. How I left there with only a jar of nectarine and red onion chutney, I’ll never know.
But we were headed for Māpua, another up-and-coming artisan town, also home to galleries, gift shops, and great places to eat.
You might never know it was once a bustling industrial hub, shipping locally-grown apples, strawberries and other fruits across to Nelson from its wharf, except that some shops are in former cool stores, and one of the restaurants lining the wharf is called The Apple Shed.
Fish and chips on the wharf is a favourite of many visitors. We watch the kids jumping from the wharf and wander the shops. I’m looking for the perfect miniature bowl for a present.
In this way, our weekend continues: indulgent food (I recommend the quesadillas at Golden Bear Brewing Company), meandering through craft and homewares stores finding inspired Christmas gifts, and at the end of the day relaxing in our luxurious country surrounds at Tilvery.
Because we live locally, we’re already planning our return, to do some of the many things we missed out on this time:
Buy a cone of locally-made Appleby Farms Ice Cream from Hamish’s on Māpua Wharf
Take the ferry to Rabbit Island – part of the Great Taste Trail, a fun and easy cycle trip
Visit the Rare Creations Interactive Wooden Art Gallery in Māpua
Stop in at Old Factory Corner on the way at Appleby – a one-stop shop for specialty food vendors
Visit the highly-recommended Michael MacMillan Sculpture and Country Homeware gallery
Pat the alpacas at Terra Nova Alpacas
The writer was a guest of Tilvery Boutique Accommodation. See: tilvery.nz”