Hanmer Springs is famous for its hot water pools. The Maori were the first to discover the thermal springs, but they never established a permanent settlement. But when the springs were rediscovered by European settlers in 1859, the government started to develop the area and in 1889 the first official bathing pools were created and later on a sanctuarium and a hospital, as the natural thermal water possesses healing qualities, which together with the fresh mountain air and lots of sunshine helped to heal the sick and wounded.
Nowadays it is one of the top 10 tourist destinations in New Zealand and everyone can benefit from the healing qualities of the hot springs at the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pool and Spa.
So when we had a two and a half weeks gap in our schedule and were looking for a relaxed place to create a base and take it slow, we quickly settled on Hanmer Springs. It only has about 750 permanent residents, but the whole village is dotted with holiday homes, most of them also available for rentals. Throughout the week the whole town is quiet, but in the weekends it is buzzing with lots of people who come here to escape city life and enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation.
We found a spacious apartment that was reasonable priced and we made this our home for a few weeks. The apartment was a bit of a disappointment. The promised mountain views were obscured by large trees and the apartment had not been redecorated or refurnished in the last 25 years. Luckily the town and its surroundings did life up to the promise. Hanmer Springs is a very relaxed town with many family friendly activities. Also it has a whole range of walking trails, from short 30 minute walks through the forest to 5 day hiking trails up the mountain.
We went twice to the pools and the kids really loved it. Besides the hot pools, they also have a water play park, a wild water stream and a kiddies pool. We did less walks than we originally expected. Mostly because a large part of the tracks were closed most of the time due to the extreme drought this year and the high risk of forest fires. Luckily in the last week of our stay all the tracks re-opened and we could do some good hiking. But we also took the time to just be at home, do nothing special and just play, craft or read. And of course we took the opportunity to catch-up with Lucas his World School assignments.
Now it is time to move-on. We have decided to add a quick stop to Kaikoura, the marine wildlife capital of New Zealand, so that is where we will go this week before returning to Christchurch to pick-up our campervan next weekend.
ps. We have also uploaded new pictures from Hanmer Springs.