In and around Hanmer Springs

The owners of the cottage we are staying in left us with a platter for cold meats and cheese to welcome us yesterday. As we had gone out for a restaurant meal, I decided the bet use of the free stuff was to use it in an omelette for breakfast, followed by the rest of the fresh strawberries that we’d bought in Havelock yesterday for ‘road snacks’. I have to say that fresh fruit in New Zealand tastes and smells so much better than the mass produced / gas ripened / refrigerated fruit we get in our shops at home. With breakfast done, it was time to head to the Amuri Jetboats so we could do get our adrenalin rush for this trip.

Our driver was very knowledgeable and explained how there had been little rain on the West Coast of New Zealand over the last 2 months which was impacting his activities. There are just some parts of the river that are just not deep enough… and a few tricky bits as well. The trip lasted an hour, is about 30km round trip and descends 85 metres on the outward journey. Interestingly, he showed us some rock falls from the same earthquake that struck Kaikora as Hanmer is on the same fault line. On the way back into town this view of the Waiau River is available.

We came back into Hanmer Springs for lunch, which we had a cafe that had only just opened. The food was good but they were having a few teething problems. I realised at lunch, that my jeans had ripped somewhere in my travels, so an urgent shopping mission was launched to buy a replacement pair, which cost the princely sum of $30… so no real damage done. We came back to the cottage so I could do a little drone flying as I was keen to try to capture the views around Hanmer. It is a truly spectacular part of the world…. but I do say that about most parts of New Zealand… particularly South Island.

Here’s another one….

The main attraction of Hanmer Springs is the pools. The hot springs were originally discovered by ‘Pakeha’ (white men) in 1859 and the construction of the Waiau Ferry Bridge in 1869 opened up the area. This bridge is still in use today (one vehicle at a time)!

The original pool was built in 1888 and at that time men and women bathed at different times (usually nude) and an item of clothing hoisted on the flagpole, (either a skirt or a pair of trousers) indicated which gender was bathing. There are now multiple pools and waterslides and families are catered for. There are also private pools for those who don’t want to deal with ‘family’ types.

The hot baths are very relaxing, so after our hour in the pools, we headed out to take a few photos in the sunset prior to finding another meal. Tonight’s venue was called ‘Restaurant 31’ and again the food was excellent. More entertaining than that were the 2 Irish couples on the next table as they discussed various television programs in their thick irish accents. The word ‘murderer’ was said with much gusto on several occasions.