Easter Break Day 2

The second day in Alex's camping adventure

Hanmer Springs

Easter Break Day 2:

We woke up in Christchurch soon after sunrise and packed up for the day.  We wanted to do a lot today- We wanted to check out the town square, get some groceries, buy beer (Finally), and get Baby Blue’s oil changed.  We figured that we would decide where to drive next after we had finished our errands.

Christchurch is the south island’s largest city, however it is still fairly small compared to the biggest cities in the United States.  I’m not going to throw a bunch of population figures at you, but just remember that the U.S. has somewhere around 300 million residents while New Zealand has 4 million.  I think it makes sense that cities will be smaller.

However, because it was the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter, the city wasn’t very busy and seemed smaller than it actually was.  However, Christchurch still has enough streets to warrant buying a city map.  It was at this time that I’d like to say I became the de facto navigator due to my excellent map-reading abilities. In reality, I was the only one in the car who could read a map without getting us lost. (Once again, I’m turning into my parents.  Growing up, mom and dad always decried my lack of sense of direction- I gained one REAL fast on this trip.)  However, if we ever got lost, I discovered that the fastest way to get to where we wanted to go was to drive in the opposite direction that Amanda told me to. (You’d be surprised how often this actually worked)

We made it to town square and checked out the Christ Church Cathedral, the namesake of the city.  Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but the Cathedral was incredible.  It is currently under construction; I think they’re adding on a food court, but it was also being readied for Easter so the inside was decorated beautifully with flowers from around New Zealand. 

We finished up our errands but we were ready to hit the road again.  While checking out the town square we heard about Hanmer Springs, a town about 90 minutes from Christchurch.  From the sound of the brochure we picked up it seemed like heaven:

“Hanmer Springs alpine spa village nestles amongst forests and hills encircled by the mountains of the Southern Alps…The variety of thermal pools ensures there is something for everyone and includes sulphur and rock pools that range in temperature from 34˚ - 42˚C. Nothing is more indulgent than soaking in natural hot pools, pampering the body with a massage or beauty treatment, relaxing in the sauna and steam room or retreating to your own private thermal pools.”

Sounds incredible, no?

When we got to Hanmer Springs we were ready for a relaxing day in some natural hot springs.  What we got was a freakin’ water park. (Check out the picture)

Those “Natural hot pools” turned out to be “Artificial hot tubs.”  And while they did have hot sulphur pools, they smelled of boiled eggs. (Which we had become accustomed to- boiled eggs were the staple of our diet for the entire trip. We hadn’t gotten sick of them at this point) and because of the Easter holiday, it was packed to the brim with families taking advantage of their time off.  I couldn’t stop cracking up-  While the reality didn’t exactly fit my idea of Hanmer Springs, it would have still been an incredible experience, except that we chose the busiest day of the year to show up.  Just my luck, huh?

We stuck around in the hot tubs for a while, then decided to go search for a place to camp.  Because we had spent more than expected on our camping spot in Christchurch, we decided to look for a free picnic area to pitch our tent outside of Hanmer.  We found one a few kilometers back on the side of the highway, right next to an Elk farm. We made dinner, and then drifted off to sleep with the sounds Elk bugles in our ears and the smell of sulphur on our towels…