Blogs from Hanmer Springs, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Thursday 19th December, 2013. Hanmer Springs, South Island, New Zealand Today was rubbish weather again. Luckily it was a travelling day so it didn't matter too much. Our destination was Hanmer Springs which had been recommended to us by a lady on the flight from Sydney to Christchurch a few weeks ago. After a bit of driving it seemed that today was going to be a complete washout. We came across a place on the map marked in red (meaning it is of interest) called the Hurunui Historic Hotel. It is famous in New Zealand for its liquor licence, having held it continuously since 1st July 1860. The original owner, John Hastie, was granted a conditional licence for the ‘Hurunui Accommodation House’. Conditions included; "that he keep eight beds in four bedrooms; shelter for six horses; ... read more

On Thursday 16th Di and I flew to Christchurch, met Amy and Jeremy{no kids}, rented a car and drove to Hanmer Springs to celebrate nephew Pauls wedding to Kelly. I hadn't been to Hanmer for a long time so was surprised to see how it has grown. Beautiful area and surroundings. As usual a large contingent of the Phillips family arrived and the greetings, eating and drinking, the telling of tales, and the catch up of what has been happening in every ones life, was loud and boisterous. Very hard on an old man with hearing aids, but so great to see every one and meet some new people as well. Friday was the big day for the wedding, but there was time for us to drive into the hills to the start of the Molesworth ... read more

Morning started well though Steve did wake up eventually! Yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs then got on the walking boots for a tramp. We walked up conical hill to see some views. A beautiful zig-zag route through heavily forested slopes ( with plenty of stopping places) and chatted to various people on the way. Fabulous views from the top with an impressive mountain range and valleys below. We took a different route back which started through the forest then meandered its way down to open grassland with marshes at one side which eventually became lakes. The views of the yellow broome were stunning and even though its not native, as we have been told, it looks beautiful. Reached the town by 1 and we stopped for our first NZ meat pie and it was yummy! Did ... read more

For the rest of the trip around New Zealand we had hired a campervan in order to see as much as we could. Due to some complicated booking and pricing systems we had to pick up our campervan from Christchurch. This meant a 7 hour bus journey from Queenstown starting at 8.30. This did not turn out to be a particularly difficult journey, due mostly to the stunningly beautiful scenery. With the right songs on the I pod it felt like watching a movie with a dramatic soundtrack. By the time we arrived at our little hostel in Christchurch it was late afternoon. So we went to the shop, made some tea and watched some tv before bed, hopefully our last dorm experience for a while (and a fancy one at that, no bunk beds!). The ... read more

New Zealand – Wk 3 Mon 23rd January 2012 After spending yesterday evening and night in our luxurious Motel accommodation it’s time once again to move on. The latter part of yesterday, Sunday was spent looking around the streets of Geraldine, eating Meat Pattie and Chips from the takeaway and publishing Wk 2s blog page, oh and also chatting to Family on Skype. Everything at home all seems ok which is nice to know. After a second look around the town, this time with the shops open we hit the scenic route intending to press on for approx 120 k and stop at the beginning of Arthurs Pass, this takes you across to the West Coast. We didn’t quite get that far, after detouring off like we do to check out a place called Peel Forest ... read more