We had the luxury of taking our time getting ready to leave Kaikoura, as it was only a relatively short drive to our final NZ destination of Hanmer Springs.
The drive took us along the coast before sending us over the mountains once again and into the town, which is a ski resort in the winter and has popular natural geothermal pools that can be enjoyed all year round.
The shorter drive to Hanmer meant that we arrived early lunchtime, but we were lucky to find that our room at the motel we were staying in was ready for us, so we could unload the car and have a spot of lunch in our room.
After lunch, we took a short walk across the road to the geothermal pools. There are a variety of pools at the complex, which vary in temperature from 30-42 degrees celcius. We took a dip in each of the pools, some of which were very nice to aid a little snooze in the sun. The hottest pools however were the sulphur pools, so in addition to being a little too hot to enjoy for a long period, the strong rotten-egg smell was a little too much to handle.
After a pleasant couple of hours in the pools, we dried off and took a walk through the town and had a quiet drink in one of the local bars. We then headed back to our room to wash up before popping out to the nearby fish and chip shop to get dinner, which we enjoyed back at our motel room in the sun, with a bottle of wine.
And so ends our last full day in New Zealand. It's been a great two weeks and we've been able to do pretty much a full lap of the south island. It's been a pretty eye-opening trip, with the country's many different environments and levels of population. My personal highlights have been the limitless beauty of Milford Sound and the incredible city of Queenstown, with eyeball-meltingly good views coupled with vibrant city life. I hope one day we'll be back.
Tomorrow, we'll be driving back to Christchurch to catch our plane to Dubai and the last day of our honeymoon.
TTFN
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