Hanmer-Springs

22nd December 2009 Tonight we’ve been invited to Sarah and Hayden’s house in Christchurch for a BBQ and to stay the night. Since we’ve got to do a big shop for over Christmas and had run out of stuff for breakfast yesterday, this morning we treated ourselves to a full cooked breakfast at the Powerhouse Cafe - bloody gorgeous. To walk off the aforementioned gluttony we headed up to Conical Hill, where a gently sloping path winds back and forth up the hill to a viewpoint at the top. The views from here were amazing, you really see how flat the plains are surrounded by mountains on all sides with the little town of Hamner nestled directly in front of you. ...

21st December 2009 A glorious cloudless sky meant that this morning we could sit on the sun terrace and enjoy our breakfast. Afterwards we packed up our gear and set off for Hanmer Springs. The road from the hostel took us down through a small town called Murchisson then snakes through Buller Gorge. We stopped off at the Buller Gorge Swingbridge which is NZ’s longest swing bridge at 110 metres long. ...