Over the years a whole lot of apples have passed through Mapua Wharf – from the first 2,500 cases in 1918 to a record 486,000 in 1952. Cool stores were built to keep the Nelson apple crop in tip top condition, but in the 1960’s road transport won over shipping and the last fruit shipments left the wharf in 1964. The old Mapua wharf and cool stores have kept their character on the outside, but have been turned into a series of trendy shops.
We walked on the wharf and looked out over the calm waters of the Waimea Estuary. The anchored boats gently turned on their moorings as the tide started to turn.
The Mapua Boat Club Photo Museum shows the rise and fall of the wharf fortunes with a series of photos through the years. It was a thriving place in years gone by, when the loading was done manually – not a sniff of a container in those days. From swinging cases of fruit over the side of the ship in a net, to loading the cases on pallets, this was a place and time when wharfies used their brawn. Interesting photos from other areas were also on display, including this “whoopsie” which happened off the coast of Guernsey. The luxury cruiser smashed into submerged rocks with the keel jamming tight in a crevice. When the tide went out, the boat was left high and dry!
A sign outside the trendy Apple Shed Cafe on the wharf offered freshly baked scones, that’s all it took for us to go in for afternoon tea. The setting was divine, we sat looking out at the estuary and watched a pied shag swim down under the water as he caught his own fish for lunch, and pop up again to do it all over again. While Robin ate his cheese scone, I savoured every bite of my delicious lemon meringue slice.
Our week in the Nelson area has come to an end, and we are moving on tomorrow, to take a week or thereabouts to head towards Picton and the Cook Strait ferry. Wonder where we will end up tomorrow?
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