A bit of R and R

Hanmer holiday homes
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The drive from Akaroa to Hanmer took around 4 hours with a short stop for sausage sandwiches for lunch. We arrived around 1600 hrs and booked into a camp site for one night, hoping to get to the springs that evening. Our plans soon changed and we decided to take it easy and booked another night on the site and went to book some spa and pedicure activities for the next day.

When we got to the beauty spa the pedicure treatment was unavailable for Tracey on the Monday, but PK booked his Spa successfully. We then had a chilled out evening eating at the outside picnic table and playing cards till dark.

View from Conical hill overlooking Hanmer
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The following day we took a walk up Conical Hill, which gives 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and forest, and our first glimpse of the Southern Alps. On the way to the start of the walk, we passed another beauty salon and Tracey booked her pedicure for Tuesday Morning. After lunch we walked round the corner to the Hanmer Springs Resort, and Tracey and myself went into the thermal springs resort whilst Pk visited the Sauna and had a massage.

The pools were all manmade with the natural hot spring water pumped into them at different temperatures, from 35 oC to 41 oC in the sulphur pools which obviously smelt of egg. After the hot pools we left to go back to the campsite as clouds were gathering. As we got back to the vans it started to rain, heavyly. We cooked and ate under cover that night, and met a nice old chap called Graham, who was from the North Island, and we agreed to visit him and his partner Maud when we were up past Auckland.

A duck pond in the middle of Hanmer
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We checked out and Tracey got her pedicure on Tuesday, whilst Pk and Joe had breakfast in a little cafe nearby. We met Tracey and set out for Kaikoura, on the coast....