Day 23: Hot Pool

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I woke up feeling terrible; my chest was hurting from costochondritis. Luckily, I had prebooked an appointment at the Onsen Hot Pools. As I headed for their pickup point a couple of blocks away, my cane tip suddenly wore out. I had half an hour to wait, so I asked the information center where I should go to get a new cane tip. They said they had no idea, but suggested that a sporting goods store across the street might be able to help.

I went there, and the clerk suggested I try a competitor down the block. I did, and he fitted my cane with a curious banana-shaped tip. It does work, though. Later I went out, checked other sports stores, and bought a more normal-looking tip, but after trying them both I decided I liked the banana better. So I'm keeping the normal one as a back-up.

The Onsen Hot Pools were a twenty-minute drive away. They were a set of private rooms, each containing a Japanese-style hot tub big enough for four adults.
Each room had its own shower and changing area. All the tubs were set on the side of a cliff, so that you could look from the tub straight down to the Shotover River far below. You could either look through a large window, or roll the window up like a garage door and sit in your tub in the open. As it was still very cold, I kept my window closed, only opening it once to see what it was like.

When I got back from the Onsen Hot Pools, I went out once more to get supper (at KFC, as it turned out; their "original" chicken had different spices, but it was still pretty good) and to mail my souvenirs from Cromwell home. The latter cost $4, with envelope -- better than I'd been expecting.

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