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Hanmer Springs, South Island – April 1 to April 4, 2017
It was a long drive from Akaroa to Hanmer Springs (a little over 3 hours). After about an hour and a half, we’d made it back through Christchurch and Pegasus, so we stopped in Amberley, a rural little town, for lunch at The Little Vintage Espresso Café.
We continued on our journey and made it to Hanmer Springs around 3pm. The first thing the kids noticed (after the cool mushroom outside the gate) was that there was a trampoline in the yard! (It was a fun surprise for them as we didn’t mention it to them ahead of time.)
After getting settled, we walked into town to check things out, especially regarding the opening hours for the hot springs/mineral pools (which we were looking forward to going to the next day) and got some groceries. Hanmer Springs is famous for its thermal pools, including rock pools, sulphur pools, and various jets and bubbles all at temperatures ranging from 96 F to 107 F! In addition, it has a lazy river, two great water slides, and a SuperBowl (that spins you around a few times and then shoots you through a slide).
Needless to say, we spent the entire day at the springs. The kids and Mike did both the slides and the SuperBowl as well as the lazy river and hot pools. It was a great day of swimming and relaxing!
The next day was quite a bit more chilly and a little rainy, so we were glad to have spent the day at the pool the day before when it was warmer and sunny! A good day to lounge around a bit.
We spent a little time at the friendly library, too, and then had Mommy/son and Daddy/daughter lunch, which ended up being at the same place — a picnic table with $7 fish and chips from a food trailer! 🙂
Earlier in the day, I foolishly told G and L that we’d forgotten all about April Fool’s Day on the first, so the kids were SUPER excited to get back to the house and work on something…hmmm…whatever could it be? When I couldn’t find the coffee anywhere, they played innocent and then pointed out that it was sitting right on the shelf! (They’d snuck it back on the shelf after filling it with crushed up chocolate chip cookies!) Happy to have “found” the coffee grounds, I proceeded to make myself a cup of coffee, which they could hardly wait to have me try! 🙂 Surprisingly, it wasn’t horrible! Maybe they’re onto something!! 🙂
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