The road out to Hanmer Springs reinforced both our views of New Zealand's natural beauty and its complete disregard for road safety. Lack of cliff-side barriers notwithstanding, the trip through the mountains was very pleasant indeed. In the middle of the misty Kaikoura Ranges, we came across a completely isolated coffee house (complete with roaring fire) where we grabbed a spot of morning tea. They offered hot chocolate, which the kiddies found irresistable - Hamish attempting to force his face down into the mug. This resulted in an incomplete chocolate ring being left on his face - producing a faux grin as well as a chocolate mono-brow (classy).
We reached Hanmer Springs in the early afternoon, and settled in to our 'rustic' (ie dated) Alpine Chalet, before visiting the Thermal Pools. We took a dip with a few bus-loads of other strange individuals, who were enjoying sitting in hot water while being rained on in temperatures floating around 9 degrees Celsius. The view from our place was very nice indeed, but am thinking the heating system may struggle with the predicted overnight temperature expected to fall to -1.
