Clan Haley

Hanmer Springs

Yesterday was our longest drive of our trip. Somewhere around 5 hours in total, which is long. We left our accomodation pretty sharpish around 9am and got just over an hour in before we had a short break at a farm shop in Geraldine. After using the loo and having a drink we got back in the car. We could tell we were approaching Christchurch as the amount of traffic on the roads increased. After another 2 and a half hours we pulled in at Willbank Wildlife Reserve. This place was very conviently located just off highway 1 near Christchurch, would allow us to stretch our legs for a few hours and wasn't to expensive to get in. The park wasn't bad and had lots of wildlife, but it had that feel of a zoo that hasn't quite had to investment it needed in the last few decades. One part that was surprising was the sheer number of chicken varieties they had. I didn't count but there were probably 15 types from all around the world. They also had plenty of farm animals (pigs, cows, goats, sheep etc) that you could feed which was cool. Towards the end they had lots of native New Zealand animals. Mostly birds, but a few frogs, skinks etc. They had a few kea which are always fun, some Kaka (another native parrot) and a kiwi house. We were very lucky to see about 4 Kiwis roaming around (its dark inside as they are nocturnal). After that we got back in the car and had a final hour and 45 minutes to go, before arriving at Hanmer Springs. On arrival we got the tent pitched, had dinner and called it a night.

Today I got up early to join the Hanmer Springs Park Run, which started in a park about 20 meters from the campsite. It had about 80 participants with several of us from the UK. The course was lovely and wound its way up and down the local forest. I finished 31st with a time of 28.33 which I was pretty pleased with. After breakfast we set off on a walk through the forest up to the summit of Conical Hill. We were treated to some great views and more than a handfull of fantails chasing each other through the forst. When we got back to town we went to the thermal pools where we spent the rest of the day. They had a selection of fresh water pools, flumes, kids area, lazy river and several hot pools. My favourite was the 41^o^ pool. James made a friend who he spent most of the afternoon chasing around. They had a few mini slides for kids which they both went up and down several hundred times and he even went down a big flume with me. On the way back to the campsite we stopped for some well deserved gelato.

Hanmer Springs is lovely. It feels like a real town with real people (rather than being overly touristy). Most of the people we have spoken too are visting from Chirstchurch as a pre Christmas chill weekend.