Sunday 29 January WOW

The World of Wearable art, or WOW, is an annual competition to design clothes made from non conventional materials. It began in Nelson twenty years ago and has grown and overspilled to Wellington. The permanent collection is in a gallery in the Nelson suburbs too far to walk but a fine cycle ride on cycle paths all the way. Nelson is most friendly to cyclists with bike paths all over. We've been all over town on ours.
The route out took us along a track designated for a railway line which was never built. Most of it felt uphill against headwind. Should be OK coming back.


Wearable art

 The literature for WOW also mentions a classic car collection. Was there ever a gallery more suited to us ? Cars for David, frocks for me. We flew into the empty car park and found convenient bikes racks to leave our trusty wheels, got tickets and spotted the café. Why not a coffee and cake to give us energy for culture? If you ever find yourself in the museum try the white chocolate and raspberry muffin. Divine.

Austin A35

Overland Torpedo Roadster 1911

Energy levels topped up I headed for the frocks and David made a beeline for the classic cars. The clothes were interesting, a lot of talent for thinking 'outside the box' but I feel the real star of this museum, and undersold part, are the cars. In the first hall there are 60 gleaming examples from the earliest Cadillacs through to modern Ferraris and Aston Martins. It's a private collection with all cars sourced within NZ and restored in the on site workshop. Of particular interest for me were the British cars which were exported as parts and assembled here in Nelson, actually in the building the museum is housed in. There's an Austin Princess, an early Vauxhall, Triumph 2500, Triumph Herald, Morris Minor. This explains why we've seen so many British we knew from our childhoods being driven here. From Hall one we walked across the back yard into hall two and another 70 cars parked fender to fender from earliest American to post war European; old jags, Austin Riley, Austin A35 and Austin A40 and a Ford Anglia which David had three of when he was a young driver. We were there until closing time and David was in seventh heaven.

Coming back to earth we hopped on our pedal powered vehicles and powered home at hair streaming speed - downhill all the way.