A Quiet Day in Hanmer Springs With a Stroll Along the Dog Stream

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We definitely chose the best and the right day to drive through Molesworth Station and back to our base in Hanmer Springs as the cloud have come down over the distant hills in the Waiau Valley that we can see from our apartment and rain threatens.

We were pretty relaxed about what time we started our walk but as long as we made it to the end of the track and back into the village and called in at the bakery by lunchtime all would work out well.

Yesterday we had bought our lunch, fresh filled bread rolls and two Danishes which were delicious when we stopped at the Cob Cottage at the halfway stage. There had been other sweet treats that would have to be tasted continuing today and perhaps tomorrow.

With the weather a bit iffy at 11.30am we set out heading away from the village to the start of the Dog Stream trail which would then take us through woodland to the top of the village making the stop at the bakery on the way back to the apartment through the village.

The path wandered through stands of English trees and along the bank of the Dog Stream.There was nothing to read about how the Dog Stream got its name so we can only wonder.

We passed the occasional walker but like the village there didn’t appear to be many tourists around at least not doing what we were doing.

Part way along we came to a section of the trail where people had attached ‘fairy houses ‘in all shapes and sizes to the bark of a tree. Some trees had just one fairy house and others had two or three. Most of the fairy houses were gaily painted which offset the heavy green of the closely planted trees.

There were numerous side trails leading off to other destinations but we decided that today’s walk would be for the 2 to 3 kilometres that we had planned and save Gretchen’s dodgy knee for another walk tomorrow. If we had longer here we could have ticked a few of the others that were on offer.

The trail went around the outside of a couple of large open grassy areas which had been well tended by the local authority and we did wonder if they could ever be filled up with locals and visitors having picnics because they were so vast. So not only did Hanmer have woodland and forest for recreation but also these wide open grasslands.

The trail emerged from the woodland to cross the infamous, for us anyway,Jollies Pass Road which had been our undoing yesterday on our first attempt to get to the entry point of Molesworth Station.

The trail continued on the other side of the road but we left it here and headed down the road into the village and the bakery.

We purchased a filled bread roll and a savoury scone and then turned our attention to the sweet treat cabinet and just couldn’t get past the rather large, well coated with chocolate, éclair and purchased one each. Just as well dinner was still a way off!

Back to the apartment we walked and made it back just before drizzle started and any possible change to our plans for another short afternoon walk was called off.

After lunch we relaxed reading and getting yesterday’s blog up to date.

As the afternoon wore on the drizzle cleared and the sun came out so we had a coffee on the deck outside the apartment.

A woman on her own, around our age, had arrived on Sunday when we did and was in the apartment next door. We had exchanged pleasantries over the past 2 days and this afternoon she had her afternoon tea on her terrace and we got into conversation over just about every subject that was current plus comparing our many travels that we had all done over the recent years.

Before we knew it a couple of hours had past and it was time to think about where we would go for dinner. She seemed to cook in her apartment for herself.

We had looked over various menus online and decided a pub/bistro in the village looked likely for us and we checked in for a tasty lamb shank and veggies for me and schnitzel and veggies for Gretchen accompanied by a glass of wine from a nearby Waipara vineyard.

It had been a relatively restful day for us and with a similar day planned for tomorrow we should then be ready for the couple of hundred kilometres drive to our next destination.

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