Friday 6th April 2007. Out to Hanmer Springs. New Zealand.

Today I am heading out to the hot pools at Hanmer Springs via the Waipara wine region.

Its Good Friday and everything closes, even the supermarkets and DIY stores...everything. Apart from service stations and a few dairy's that are open this is a genuine holiday.

On my journey I pass Frog Rocks and I must say it feels so much like home as we drive along you could easily be in blighty!

Lunch is at Culverden Tearooms before I arrive in the village of Hanmer Springs.

The hot pools were known to the Maori before they were discovered for the Europeans by William Jones in 1859.

After the hot pools I have drinks at On 47 in this ski resort town which is a larger version of Ellicottville (for our Twenty First Century Learning Center students).

And today I will dine at the Hurunui Hotel, with its roots as an old coaching inn from the early days of Canterbury when the track north through the Weka Pass to the coast and Nelson was one of the provinces main routes.
This accommodation house was established in 1860 soon after a quarantine dip had been established to prevent the spread of scab through Canterbury with sheep being driven south from Nelson dipped before being allowed to go on to Canterbury.
As it is Good Friday you cannot buy alcohol, even though this is a pub, without the purchase of food...its the law.

Back to my house share and it is quite a place. There are four dogs (one a pit-bull and one an Alsatian), two cats and a budgie as well as five people living here.