We left Christchurch to head of to Hanmer Springs, which is famous for its natural mineral springs. Three of the pools are Sulphur pools and around about 42° Celsius. If you have missed the Sulphur lessons in chemistry class, it smells like rotten eggs… And yes I took a soak in it… It made my skin very soft and the hot water relaxed my body instantly, and even though we went in early spring and the mountains surrounding the spa still had snow caps, we enjoyed the outdoor pool very much. Once you walk out of the hot pool it actually takes a while for your body to get cold, and when jumping into the next hot spring it feels much warmer then it really is. I was disappointed that there was no snowfall on that day, as I do remember visiting similar pools in Germany and Michigan, whilst it was snowing. It is fantastic sitting in a hot spring and have snow falling onto your head. When I was a child I even used to quickly jump out of the hot pool to roll in the snow and then jump back into the water… But unfortunately no snow, we had very nice and warm weather which was very comfortable, I did manage to jump into the slightly colder pool to get a similar effect.
After the visit to the pool we head off to Kaikoura. What a wonderful view that was!
We were thinking of joining a cruise ship to see the seals and albatross, but where a little bit too late and missed the boat, well next time…
Our road trip took us to our next destination 250km to the north west - Nelson - another small and romantic city with blossom trees and historic churches.
After having some lunch we drove further up to finally visit my friend. It has been 8 years since I last saw her; in the meantime she got married and had two beautiful boys. We lost contact, because we both moved to different places and only out of pure luck found each other on facebook again. You got to love facebook! Despite the long time we haven’t seen each other, it felt like it has only been a couple of weeks. Some friends and only the best of friends can actually pick up the relationship where they have left it off and continue with the same feeling of closeness. She is one of those friends and we had a fabulous time in Motueka. We spend some time at the beach and walked in some marsh like areas along the coast. Too bad we had a big trip planed and needed to continue our travel the next afternoon…
After having some lunch we drove further up to finally visit my friend. It has been 8 years since I last saw her; in the meantime she got married and had two beautiful boys. We lost contact, because we both moved to different places and only out of pure luck found each other on facebook again. You got to love facebook! Despite the long time we haven’t seen each other, it felt like it has only been a couple of weeks. Some friends and only the best of friends can actually pick up the relationship where they have left it off and continue with the same feeling of closeness. She is one of those friends and we had a fabulous time in Motueka. We spend some time at the beach and walked in some marsh like areas along the coast. Too bad we had a big trip planed and needed to continue our travel the next afternoon…
No comments:
Post a Comment