rom Picton the most direct route south-west to Nelson is the coastal road via Linkwater to Havelock. This is 35 kilometres and about 40 minutes' drive, the road giving good views down both Queen Charlotte and Mahau Sounds. At Havelock you join State Highway 6 and from here it is an easy drive of about an hour (75 kilometres) to Nelson. The road goes through Rai Valley, past the farming country of the Whangamoa Valley, then over the Whangamoa Saddle into Nelson, the horticultural centre of the South Island.

Nelson was the port of arrival for many of the first settlers in the South Island. Many came via Australia and the trees they brought were often gums, the first of these being a Tasmanian blue gum dating from about 1843, which is still thriving. You can see it a short distance above the highwater mark at the Wairau Bar, near the mouth of the Wairau River.

The first domestic animals were imported by George Duppa, who arrived in Nelson in June 1842 from New South Wales, bringing with him 189 sheep and some Durham cattle and settling with these near the Waimea River. A considerably larger shipment was made by Charles Bidwell, who came in 1843 in the schooner Posthumous, bringing with him 1600 sheep and some horses which were landed on Fifeshire Island in Nelson Harbour.

No sooner had these immigrants settled than they began 'improving', the wildlife with a gusto encountered in few other parts of the country. Red deer first arrived in Nelson in 1853, when the survivor of a pair sent by the Prince Consort arrived on the Eagle. Three replacements were sent on the Donna Anita, arriving in 1860. These were released in the hills behind the town and bred rapidly. The first fallow deer to be imported also came to Nelson in 1864 and were released in the Aniseed Valley.