Richmond.

There was nothing exciting planned for today. Just a short journey to Richmond taking us closer to Nelson. There was no rush to get away from Motueka and before we left we stocked up on apples from the laundry. We don’t know who was supplying the apples and pears but they just kept on appearing. At the last count there were 5 boxes.

Yer, I can pull it, no sweat!

The road through to Richmond seemed to be a relatively new road as it was reasonably straight and fast. We soon found our next camp at the Richmond A&P grounds. Unfortunately the only draw back is no showers but we can live with that, we do have our own in the motorhome after all..

Waimea inlet between Motueka and Richmond.

This afternoon we walked into town for a nosey and had a look at a huge tree stump we had seen on the way into the camp.It turned out to be a Tasmanian Blue Gum planted by Francis Otterson, an early Nelson pioneer in 1847. It was one of 2 planted but the other was cut down in 1959. The remaining tree was put under court order protection until 2005 when a limb broke off. Inspection showed that the tree although still sound was a public liability so was cut down leaving the huge stump.

Otterson's Gum, Richmond. 158 years old but felled in 2005 for safety reasons.

The tree measured approximately 44m in height with a 32m x 26m crown spread. The trunk measured 3.9m in diameter at a point 1.5m above the ground. All was not lost as a sapling from the tree was presented to and planted by descendants of Francis on another family property.