Blogs from Hanmer Springs, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

This morning we woke early so we could catch the 8:45 ferry across to the South Island. It is sad to leave the North Island since we had so much fun while we were here and would love to stay another week or two. We can always come back! The ferry landed in Picton on the South Island around 12:00pm. The scenery welcoming us in the South Island was amazing. The water was a beautiful blue, while the shore was covered in pine trees on top of steep mountains. We drove down the east coast of the South Island and it was stunning. The water, the rocks, being almost the only car on the road was so nice. About 3 and ½ hours into the drive we turned off towards Hanmer Springs, our next destination. Hanmer ... read more

Paul is back in Canada enjoying the heat which must be getting sucked directly through the earth from Reefton because there's none to be had, indoors or out, around here. In the first week that Paul was away our car and dishwasher broke, our garage flooded and we had a small but smoky housefire. He is missed. The kids get two weeks off school between terms. This coincides with the MidChristmas festivities that happen around here. The halfway point to next Christmas is marked with dinners and sales, which is funny given that from all accounts Christmas here is not the familiar commercial spendfest of home. We had chicken to mark the day. You can't get turkey here. We don't know why not. The kids' first week off was devoted to slave labour when they were ... read more

Internet: Ain’t good in NZ. Mostly dial up, very expensive and very slow. It is amazing that the technology is so far behind here. NZ is such a long way away from anywhere, that you would expect the internet to be booming and vital to commerce. But we have found maintaining the Blog really difficult. Everything has to be written online at slow expensive rates (anything up to 5 quid an hour). Apparently it is because NZ telecom still has the monopoly until June…. Diary: We left St Arnaud looking forward to a few days of descent to Wesport following the Buller Gorge, however no sooner had we left St Arnaud, that we experienced our first headwind. I felt downhearted, but Ben true to form with a gradient barely in his favour decided that this too ... read more

We headed up to Hanmer Springs nice & early this morning so we got a full day there! It only took 2hrs drive and the scenery was so beautiful-snow capped mountains! We'd already looked up a place to stay called Alpine Adventure park so we headed straight for there...as i'm the 'navigator' this means i have to do all the running around asking prices and stuff when we get there (well according to Sean it does anyway!) Well at first they said they were fully book because its Easter weekend...damn it we'd forgot that, must be cause we had no easter eggs to remind us..aaahhhh! But they managed to squeeze us in! The main attraction here is the Thermal Pools so we headed straight for there! I had a free voucher that'd i'd found in a ... read more

This aptly named place has natural hot springs pumped into less natural pools for all to sit in. We spent a few hours of my birthday doing just this. It's nice enough for a bit but not terribly exciting. Perhaps that's the point.... read more