Local Attractions

Your excellent taste in holiday destination is matched a broad range of options to discover and enjoy in the local area and beyond.

With the dual treasures of a bayside setting that is arced by a protective mountain range.
This arrangement makes the area Mediterranean in its warm and sunny climate. The soil is fertile. The seafood is fresh and wonderful.

Motueka is a blessed town. 
All the benefits of a small town matched with facilities usually found in much larger population centres. 
A great choice of cafes and restaurants, 2 cinemas, 2 supermarkets and a department store, a wonderful range of local shops.  Good banking and postal services. 
And 3 nitespots! Dance and live music.
Set in a stunning landscape with the top end of the Southern Alps pointing to the Bayside. Orchards and vineyards.  Take a water taxi from Kaiteriteri and go see

Here is my pick of what you might like to do and see when in town. 
There is plenty available to suit all budgets, tastes and ages.
Most of these venues are walking distance from The Mot House

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Check out our very own GECKO CINEMA, an experience like few others.
Go for the ambience and the great Hokey-Pokey ice-creams and stay for the mix of arthouse and mainstream films.
There is also a local STATE CINEMA in the sports complex at the other end of town.

H0T MAMAS is the place for some good quality yumm food and a colourful relaxed atmosphere.





MOTUEKA MUSEUM

Also highly recommended is a trip to the local Motueka Museum.
It's an enlightening pleasure to see the Maori, historic, environmental and quaint, with stories of colourful figures and artefacts to prove it!
The best $2 you'll spend all summer."






FOUR WINDS CAFE - Sunday Jam sessions with local talent playing live, bring your instrument and join in!

Two doors or so down from Hot Mamas is The Four Winds cafe, Motueka's newest hangout that's a close walk to The Mot House. The original group of 4 young women friends who set it up have moved on and handed over to the current owner who will make you feel very welcome. Hear local musicians perform live after the Sunday Markets - take along an instrument and join in the Sunday Jam sessions.

MOTUEKA BMXers

It may not be your thing, but we had Jake Prebble (NZs number 2 champion last time I looked) stay at the house for a while before it became a holiday let. He turned me on to the skill and agility and physical awesomeness of these young men - its like ballet on wheels. They are masters of the physical world - balancing their centre of gravity at high speeds and daring themselves to go further. Jake's Mum has been there making the videos for a few years now.
Head to the track at . . . for a free show of great skill if you are there at the right moment.


SKYDIVING

If you are game you can jump. Or just pull the garden bench around by the weeping fig and grab a coffee and watch the little Noddy plane fly up and a few minutes later see who can see the little black dots where the excited scream is coming from off in the distance up high there somewhere. See it get closer and closer then the colours open out - 6 at a time sometimes - and there you are - a voyeurs pleasure, Or you can drive or cycle or walk around to the airport and see them landing. It's a great spectacle.


SUMMER FESTIVAL

Street Music paid for by Council, or some impromptu


MOTUEKA on YOUTUBE
More . . . a bit of Bridge Diving (not recommended!) and other goings on around Mot


IN THE MOT RIVER


SIKA ON DIDJ AT ARCADIA ORGANICS IN ARCADE NEAR NEW WORLD


CAVE DIVING


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Local agriculture, Maori Culture, Artists and Craftspeople . . . . .

"Mot" is the local's pet name for our town, Motueka (pronounced moor-too-ekka), a Maori word for this lush fertile coastal plain,  meaning "many trees".

Other local secrets are:

• excellent fresh fish from our 2 fish shops

• trawling for treasures through our antique and recycled goodies shops

• vineyard day trips
  

• Saturday Nelson arts and craft market if you feel like the drive

• or just head down to the Motueka Sunday growers market in the carpark behind the shops next to the large park. For fresh produce, local arts and crafts, great food, buskers, and coffee and goss under the umbrellas as the world goes by under our famous sunny skies.
  

• The historic Motueka Maori Marae in Pah Street. 

• Mot is perfect for cycling as it is very flat.And try to get out to the Mot Quay to see the shipwreck, the views across the vast bay towards Nelson, and for a wander along the bayside boardwalk.

• And this is only a short list of what this area has to offer