NZ Travels: Hanmer Springs Spa day & Drive to Kaikoura

Travelling New Zealand: Duration 3 weeks: December 2008: Day 10

We got up earlyish, I’m sure it’s getting later each day, and did all the things you have to do when you have a campervan i.e. emptying the loo, water and re-filling with clean water – lovely stuff. 

Then we drove into the centre of the town and parked up next to the spa. Set against the bacdrop of the Waiau Gorge and river, Hanmer Springs is a lovely place, marketed as a premier alpine spa destination and with natural thermal pools. 

We managed to get into the spa on an ‘alpine revitaliser package’ which included a steam room for the two of us, use of all the thermal pools, a back massage and a facial each!  Marvellous!  It was great to have a massage – sleeping in a campervan is not the most comfortable bed in the world.  This was the start of our luxurious few days !!!

After spending most of the day lazing about, being massaged and drinking herbal detoxifying green tea, we decided we’d better go back to the real world and set off in our beloved campervan to our next destination – Kaikoura.

The drive to Kaikoura is part of what NZ calls the ‘alpine pacific triangle ’ which is a scenic route which links Christchurch, Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura.  It is a really pretty route, and links the three which are approx 1.5 hours apart from each other if you don’t stop.  The reason for us travelling to Kaikoura was to experience the marine wildlife, there are lots of seals, whales and dolphins there along the coast.

When we arrived in Kaikoura, there didn’t really seem to be much there.  It’s a typical seaside type town and everything was closed as it wasn’t really high season and it was after 5pm.  However, we spotted a couple of bars open and found our holiday park and took a walk into the town along the coast.  We had a walk along the beach, it is a grey pebble beach here with lots of rocks and rocky outcrops along the coastline.

We then walked back, it was getting a bit cold by then and we had booked ourselves into a dolphin swimming experience at 8.30 am the next morning.