"red sky in the morning, sailors take warning"

This is what the sky looked like at sunrise this morning, from the deck of our place in Nelson:

so we heeded the advise of the captain of the boat we were supposed to take to explore the Abel Tasman national park, and switched our plans to tomorrow (which has fabulous forecast).  Today, we went to visit the charming town of Nelson, and its Saturday farmer's/craft market,

where I finally succumbed to the temptation, and bought a cardigan made out of this amazing fiber they have here (and as far as I can tell, no where else), made of 50% merino wool and 50% possum fur.  It is the softest, warmest, lightest fiber I've ever seen - and the cardigan was an irresistible shade of green, and....  it was raining - so I just had to go for it!   I may have to buy more of the stuff.... (Joe is lusting after possum slippers....).
We wandered around the market, and the town, stopping for coffee and just taking it easy.   On the way, we found a pottery place where Joe just had to buy some kick-knacks (he also had to get a Kauri bowl - Kauri is a tree that only grows here and the old wood is now very hard to find, so, as I said - he just had to....).
Around town, we came across this store front, which made me laugh:

"Cruella" and "natural fiber" does raise some disturbing questions....... (it fact, it was mostly merino wool......).
There is a short street on the side of town -completely unadvertised, we found it completely by random walk- which has preserved all the little houses of the original town, around 1860 (which is old by new Zealand standards).  It was a delightful surprise, full of little Victorian cottages:

We stopped by another winery for a nice lunch of local cheeses - and - duh- wine, and then drove down the coast - which was pretty even in the rainy weather:

 We then ended at Kaiteritiri's gold sand beaches - even with grey sky, the sand is truly golden.

We very much look forward to seeing it under the sun tomorrow!