Hanmer Springs

Just as we got home from our 10 day tour of the Southern part of the south island, we headed off again on a "Girls trip" with some Kiwi and American friends that were also in NZ.  Brenda Bradley (who is a good Kiwi friend and is living in CA on their sabbatical was in town to see us) along with ChCh friend Aneta Cubrinovska (originally from Macedonia, but lived 15 years and raised her only daughter in Japan), Mary Bray who is from CA but in ChCh for a few months and her sister Patty, who is on holiday for a few weeks with Mary.  We all headed to Hanmer Springs to relax in the hot pools and have some fun.  Brenda was so nice to invite the crazy Texas bunch since we were the only "kids".  Aneta drove with me and encouraged me to do the driving.  I was scared to death!!  But, it really was just what I needed.  To be forced to drive or I would have kept saying NO WAY.  It was better to learn on a long road with no intersections anyways.  I drove almost 2 hours there, then the whole time in the tiny town of Hanmer and then 2 hours home.  

We stopped at a Winery for lunch on the way there.  All the others are into wine tasting so we were just along for the ride and scenery.  We had lunch there.  It was a beautiful place to stop for lunch.  The menu was "fancy" and I looked at it in despair as I thought what I would get for the girls.  It was terribly expensive for food I knew they would not eat.  Luckily she brought me a kids menu and we orders some little pizzas.  It turned out good so I was relieved. 

They even had some eels in their pond.  Eels creep me out!  YUCK

Bamboo jail!

We got to Hanmer and it was a cute little town.  Very small and people come here for their hot spring.  We did the hot springs pool that evening and the next afternoon.  We also walked around the little shops and our friend Brenda showed us The Lollie Pot... this was their kind of store!!  CANDY SHOP!!

We went Mini Golfing the second morning we were there before we headed to the hot springs for a second time.  It was the first time to play mini golf for Alyssa and Ava.

A fun day with friends: (L-R) Aneta, Patty, Mary, Brenda, Me

Ava, Alyssa, Kayla, Savannah

Below are some pictures of the Hot Springs pools from online.  I didn't take any pictures there.  No pockets in a swimsuit :)

Ava was swimming underwater in the lazy river and hit her head on the wall.  Ouch!  She had a giant goose egg.

We did this giant 1000 piece puzzle.  It was really hard and took all of us looking for pieces.  The crazy thing about these puzzles (that are popular here) is that you don't know what they look like when you're making them.  They give you a picture, but the actual puzzle is that scene but in the future.  they are called  Wasgij puzzles (jigsaw- backwards).

We were so excited to finish it.  We were supposed to be out of the house at 11 am.  We finished at 11:30... 30 minutes late, but we weren't going to NOT finish with only a few pieces left.  Thanks girls for a fun few days in Hanmer Springs!