Its the start of the 2010 Apple Season in Nelson….

Even I remember as a kid working after school at one of Nelsons Packhouses to get some after school pocket money.

Every year from around Feb – May/June the Apple Season is in full swing.

In the days many decades ago, when I worked a season for the now defunct Apple & Pear Board at their sorting/inspecting yard and associated coolstores at Port Nelson, 98% of apples were loaded over the dock and shipside on slings.

“Wharfies” (stevedoring workers) would furiously move around like a swarm of bees unloading the sling, then repositioning the Apple cartons into the ships hold one by ever single one, thousands and thousands of cases per hold.

Today, most are carried by container ships like those photographed above, today, from near the beach at Tahunanui, something I am sure the Wharvies are pretty happy about.

Although in so saying, I am sure there must have been a time when no one looked forward to the inevitable redundancies that this containerisation must have caused.

I am reliably informed that Port Nelson will still have 4-6 Reefers show up this season to be loaded the old fashioned way.

Port Nelson has for the last few months been absolutely inundated with empty containers………

…….the Nelson Mail reporting that as many as 4000 are lying around the Port Nelson complex awaiting their load of Apples. Maersk look to have cornered the Nelson market if these photos are anything to go by.

And while this years harvest gets into full swing Australasia's biggest fishing Port still gets on with the other normal business like unloading vehicles from a VLCC (Very Large Car Carrier) Vessel……….

……….meanwhile the fishing……..

….boats enter and leave Port Nelson every single day to dislodge their catch….

and it - well - it just never stops.