Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs was quite a nice surprise when I woke up the next morning. You know how it is when you arrive somewhere well after dark and you awaken the next morning and you look outside and you're absolutely stunned by the unexpected beauty of the scenery that you didn't see in your nighttime approach? I was impressed by the little alpine town. It was pretty much an upscale tourist town, but it was such a great place to spend my morning. I couldn't get enough of breathing in that fresh, clear, cool, pine-scented air. I went to the hot springs thermal reserve in the morning. I got bored of soaking in the natural sulphur hot pools pretty quickly, especially since they didn't have the cold water to counteract them. Afterall, what fun is the heat if you can't follow it by a shock of cold, sauna-style? They had a lap pool, however, so I was a happy little fish, swimming for ages in there. I had to do backstroke since I was wearing my contacts and I'd forgotten to bring my goggles. But I like backstroke, so I was all good with that. I ate a picnic lunch amongst the pines outside the thermal reserve before heading down to Christchurch. I checked in at my hostel, did some shopping, and got ready to pick up Anne the next morning, since we had arranged for me to pick her up at the airport at 11am. The next morning, I got to the airport a bit early, even after taking a walk through the park and Botanic Gardens after checking out of my hostel. I drove around, circling the arrivals area for a good hour or so. Finally, I got a bit nervous, worried that something had gone amiss, since Anne hadn't called my phone to let me know that she'd be late. I found a phone and called her host parents, leaving a message for them to call me if they knew if Anne had gotten on her flight as planned. I eventually decided to cough up the money and park at the airport and go in and talk to the people at the Air New Zealand desk to see if they had any updated info on the flight. There wasn't much money to cough up though, because unlike airports in the US, at least ones I'm familiar with, anyway, the parking was dirt cheap! Free for the first 20 miutes and I think it was a dollar for each additional half hour or something like that. I didn't have to remember that part, because I got out in under 20 minutes. Cuz um, well, I went to talk to the Air New Zealand people and they weren't familiar with the flight 0413 arriving from Wellington at 10:40. After much searching, they told me that there was a flight 0413 arriving from Wellington at 10:40am TOMORROW. Whoops!!! I cannot believe I did that! Especially since I have to admit I've done it before: I got to Florence a day early to meet Amelia when we were travelling in Europe after my semester in Norway. I was so worried that time, too. Oh well. Better a day early than a day late, though, right??? I called Anne's host parents back to let them know that I'd figured out my mistake. I talked to Annette, her host mother, who thought it was hilarious, but was glad that I'd figured it out at least. It was fun to talk to her for a little while. Annette and Murray (Anne's host parents) are a trip! They are so much fun. So now I had a whole, well, half day that I hadn't expected, to explore Christchurch. Luckily for me, they were having a big bio-cataloguing event at the Botanic Gardens, and had all sorts of natureific events at the gardens, based around cataloguing the biodiversity of the area. I hooked onto a bird hike with one of the women who worked in the gardens and a ranger from the local City Council. It was so cool! And I got the ranger's card, so I can get some advice about other fun places to go check out the bird life around Christchurch on my way back through. They're situated in a wetland area, and I just love all those wetland birds. After the bird hike, I speeded off to go to a Maori cultural performance. It was really disappointing, unforutunately. I haven't really done things that are very mainstream touristy, for the most part, and I knew this would be, but I am really curious about the Maori dances, so I was hoping that the performance would be cool enough to make up for the touristy feeling of it. As you have probably gathered, it wasn't. They did the hokey pokey in Maori, for goodness sake! I think that upon later reflection, my problem is that I am genuinely, deeply interested in the culture, particularly the food and dancing, and these performances cater to people who just want to see a quick overview and move on. But I really truly wanted to know more! So it was very disappointing. I still hold out hope that I'll be able to find a class in Maori dance or something, but it doesn't seem to likely. It might have to remain a mystery to me.