Hanmer Springs & Christchurch

Day 1 – Missing Penguins

As the weather predicted more rain and fog, we decided to head to Hamner Springs where there were natural sulphur springs you could bathe in. We had missed out on doing the ‘Spring thing’ in Rotarua and given the weather, this seemed the best plan.

First though we were going to look at the penguins we had spotted on our drive into Kaikoura. We drove a little way and parked up and pushed through the wind and rain to find black and white birds, yep birds of the airborne kind! I don’t know what they were called but they definitely weren’t penguins! We promptly jumped back in the car so no pics of penguin-like birds to share.

We headed to Hanmer Springs which was in the mountains. The scenery would have been stunning if we could see much in front of us. The fog was pretty fowl and I felt for Glenn having to negotiate the climbs and curves (but, you notice, I didn’t offer to take over driving).

Arriving at the springs, we found it was only about $5 extra to get your own private bathing area for 30 minutes so we opted for that. After some challenges with a locker we then headed to our private bath type thing. We were shown into a room with a big glass wall and a pool. There was a sign warning you not to immerse your head as the water was sulphuric (we didn’t attempt it to see what would happen). The pool was okay but to be honest, not private enough to totally enjoy yourself (if you get my meaning) and knowing there would be a knock on the door in 30 mins we decided to just have a bit of a float and meditate.

That done it was into the public pools, there were various pools each at different temperatures. We tried out the hot sulphur pool until we got a bit dizzy, the rock pool coz it looked cool, a massage pool which was just a chlorine pool and undid all of the good work of the sulphur and some other pool which I can’t remember the benefits of.

After a quick shower I met Glenn outside the changing rooms where he asked me to take a few pics of the pools as he felt like a perv. I took a couple and got what he meant. Sorry there aren’t really any pics but taking snaps with young kids and half naked adults in the background can get you arrested these days!

We then drove to a YMCA in Christchurch. Our dwelling was a one bed, shared bathroom/kitchen thing as cities are soooo bloody expensive. It wasn’t bad, pretty big and clean. Plus the bathroom wasn’t too far away for the midnight dash.

Both a bit knackered, we went to the bar underneath the YMCA whilst our jacket pots cooked. Whilst preparing our gourmet meal we noticed several boxes marked ‘Free Food’. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, we helped ourselves to free mayo oil and some spaghetti pasta. Cheers YMCA peeps!

We are pretty chuffed with this ‘free food malarky’ only I think you are only supposed to use what you need and then put it back? We took it literally and are still carrying around the spag as we write!

Day 2 – City Tour

As there were no city tours on offer we decided to just use our city map and work it out ourselves.  Firstly we stopped at the on-site tour desk and opted to do the Tranz Alpine Train journey in a couple of days. We wanted to go the next day but it worked out cheaper to stay an extra day in C.C and go the following day.

We then headed out to try and check out the local sights and graffiti murals across the city.  The first thing we noticed was how the city was still rebuilding some 6 years after the massive earthquake that had hit it.

Walking around for a bit we found various artworks and struggled to find others which had been obscured by new builds (buildings are going up that fast).  After wandering around for a while we eventually found New Start, which was an area full of storage containers that had been converted into shops, restaurants and even banks! (a replacement for a former shopping centre that had been devastated by the earthquake).

We then sort shelter in a nearby bar for a couple of drinks as it was freezing, before heading for the Christchurch earthquake centre which was a museum that commemorated the earthquake.  It had some extremely interesting stuff. Most notably an hour long film that had locals recounting their own personal experience of the day the quake hit, very poignant and really worth the watch.

After the museum we found another bar before checking out more artwork and then hitting New Regent Street which was a lovely street full of art deco buildings, with the city tram running straight through it.

On the way back to the hostel we passed the old cathedral which was still showing the effects of the earthquake with half of it collapsed and being propped up with steel supports (they can’t decide whether to repair it or knock it down and start again).

When we got back to the hostel we hadn’t eaten so we went to the kitchen and Shell managed to cobble together a few ham toasties from what we had available in our mobile larder. 

As we returned to our room we noticed that all the toilets/showers were now out of order on our floor, so we went to reception to complain (well Shell did the complaining) and we were told they would not be in operation until the following week.  After trying her best we were offered a room on another floor, however Shell not particularly happy with this outcome checked online and found they had en-suites available.  With this information in hand we returned to reception and Shell asked for a free upgrade to an en-suite for the next two nights, she got it, result!!

The better accommodation sorted for the next couple of nights we returned to our room for the rest of the afternoon/early evening and relaxed and caught up with a bit of blogging.

In the evening I had been in contact with an old Surreal Madrid (football) mate, Rob Gibbs, who now lived in Christchurch and was up for a beer, even better he agreed to meet us in the bar underneath the YMCA.

Shell and I went down to the bar and waited for Rob to turn up and had a cheeky beer whilst we waited.  Just after 8pm Rob turned up and we had a couple more beers in this bar whilst we caught up and asked him questions about his life here, earthquakes and any recommendations he may have.

Our bar,  although convenient wasn’t the most lively place in the world so we all headed off for Victoria Street which was supposed to be a good area for bars and restaurants.  On arriving there we headed for a bar named, Boo Radleys which is a bit of a live music venue.

The bar was pretty cool and the live music turned out to be a one man band, playing guitar, drums, harmonica and singing the blues (think one man band on acid!).  We spent a few hours there, shouting at each other over the noise and drinking a number of beers until we felt it was time to go home (Sorry Rob if it was early on one of your very few nights out).

On the way back to the room I picked up some chocolate bars and crisps from the vending machine (that we didn’t eat) before hitting the sack.  Only embarrassing thing is if they have CCTV in this establishment they may have seen me doing my 3am dash thought the corridors in my budgie smuggler pants and nothing else (thank god no one else was around, a bit drunk and couldn’t be bothered trying to find my trousers!!!).

Day 3 – French Town

We had to check out at 10.00 so we could check back into our upgraded room later in the day, so the plan was to drive to Akaroa where we had previously thought of staying.

The drive to Akaroa was around two hours and once out of Christchurch we were soon climbing up bendy roads.  Eventually as we got near Akaroa we crested a mountain top and were suddenly confronted with an amazing view of a massive crater lake with small villages surrounding it.  So we pulled over to the side of the road and took a few pics.

Winding down the road appreciating the view we then got to Akaroa which is a village with very strong French roots as it was originally where the French Settled in New Zealand.

Parking up by the side of the lake we then had a wander around the village, which had French road names, crepe shops, bistro restaurants and other French stuff.  It was pretty quaint so we went to a supermarket and picked up some snacks to have a little picnic lunch by the lake.

After lunch we decided to take the tourist scenic drive which pretty much took us back up into the mountains that surrounded the lake.  We drove for a while before dropping back down to a beach along the route, again a steep drive down.

Getting out at the car we noticed signs indicating that there were penguins here so we followed the path down to the beach to take a look.  Arriving at the beach there appeared to be steam coming off of the beach, so it looked as if it was another geothermic beach (although we did not dig a hole again to find out for sure).  As far as we could see there were no obvious signs of penguins so we headed back to the car to continue our drive.

Circumnavigating the lake crater for around an hour taking in the stunning view and more pictures we then headed back to Christchurch via a supermarket to pick up some stuff to cook for dinner.

Arriving back at the hostel around 4pm we checked back in to our upgraded room (we now have an en-suite, yay!!), before heading to the communal kitchen to prepare my now famous chilli for dinner, before the evening hoards descended. Whilst we were there we managed to liberate some spaghetti and vinaigrette from the free food shelves (we like this free food concept!).

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening we relaxed before heading down back down to the kitchen to re-heat my chilli for dinner(it was now packed and we were lucky to get two pots and a couple of rings to cook on).  We felt quite smug with our chili and rice with a nice bottle of wine, whilst we watched our fellow backpackers knocking up spaghetti pasta with tomato sauce squeezed on top!

Day 4 – Tranz Alpine Railway

Today we had booked to go on what our guide book described as one of the top 10 railway journeys in the world, which was a train trip from Christchurch (East Coast) to Greymouth (West Coast) through the mountains. 

Unfortunately this meant being up very early once again as we were being picked up about 7.00 in the morning. The mini-bus picked us up and took us to the train station where we picked up our tickets, we had been tipped off to ask for window seats on the right hand side of the carriage as this provided the best view.  We were lucky as the guy we asked did this for us, where we heard a lady on the next counter being told the seats had already been allocated and they could not do this.

The train headed out around nine and we were soon headed towards the mountains listening to an audio commentary along the way, providing us with all the history of places we were passing.

It wasn’t long before were soon getting great views of snow-capped mountains and passing over bridges with mountain rivers passing underneath.

As the trip went along (5 hour journey) and the scenery got even more beautiful Shell and I headed for the viewing carriage, which had open sides which you could get better pictures from.  Well you could do as long as you fought off the Japanese/Chinese tourists that are a nightmare once they have a camera in their hands, trying to push in front of you so they could get their shots!

It got cold after a while standing there so we headed back to our carriage to relax and watch the views as we went past, also enjoying some filled rolls that Shell had knocked up for the journey the night before.

We then stopped for a while whilst they hooked up a couple of engines to the train to ensure we got through the next part of the track, which was about a ten mile stretch of track that went through a tunnel underneath the mountains.

After 10-15 minutes of darkness we then exited on the other side which in contrast was more sunny and had less mountains and more rivers and lakes along the way.

Reaching our destination of Greymouth late meant that instead of having a whole 45 minutes to explore we only had time to go to the loo before we had to get aboard a mini-bus for the return journey (cheaper than getting the train back).

The journey back was again about 5 hours but it was done via road, but it pretty much followed the same path as the train which once again meant that we were treated to fantastic mountain views along the way.

Arriving back at the hostel around 6ish we were pretty pleased that we had cooked a couple of batches of the chili so all we had to do was go to the kitchen and re-heat it for our dinner.  We also took the opportunity to restock our travelling larder with a jar of mayonnaise, bottle of cumin and a bag of rice.

For the rest of the evening we just relaxed, did a bit of travel research and watched some TV before hitting the hay.