A beautiful morning and the views from the rear window of our trusty campervan were stunning. Another cruise ship was anchored in the bay and this is apparently now common place since the earthquake totally destroyed Lyttleton which was formerly the main port for Christchurch.
We had decided to spend the morning at Akaroa before heading off for Hanmer Springs and enjoyed a great swim off the main beach - what a magnificent place to swim!
Coffee and a snack at a really nice outdoor cafe and off we headed to our next destination.
We were really sad to leave Akaroa and the lovely lady wife was muttering about being happy to spend a week or so there.
An easy journey back via Christchurch and then having refueled at Amberley (no not the one in West Sussex) we headed north west over the Wepa pass leaving the Canterbury plains behind us. The views were stunning, as always seems to be the case in NZ, and I guess the favourite Kiwi word "awesome" sums it up very well.
With mountains on three sides we had a pleasant if pretty windy journey to Hanmer Springs and arrived at our camp site around 4pm. The lovely lady wife was delighted to retain her "best parked campervan" award and in true English fashion we settled down for a nice cup of tea.
Refreshed we decided to sample the delights of the thermal springs and walked the short distance to the resort which was busy but very nice and in a beautiful position surrounded by trees and mountains. We enjoyed the various pools some as hot as 40C but both agreed that as good as it was it did not come close to the wonderful swim at Akaroa in the morning.
Time for the built in BBQ again and our neighbour, who I think was an Aussie, suddenly appeared, took one look at our BBQ and said to me very loudly "what a great idea - awesome". He then quickly disappeared inside his campervan and proceeded to tell the whole family about this wonderful device being used by the neighbourhood Poms and how they must get one!
Tomorrow it's off to Motueka and the Abel Tasman national park.
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