Going To New Zealand part seven (East coast to Hanmer Springs)

Hmm.

We had gone on from Picton down to Seddon, Ward, past Wharanui and Hapuku, where we stopped by in Kaikoura. There wasn't much in kaikoura, we stopped at the visitor information station and checked about for the next best town to stop by in. The town which we decided to visit next was Hanmer Springs (which, incidentally was a volcanic area like Rotorua, with much less vomit smell).

Exploring more of kaikoura involved us going onto the peninsula until it's tip. there, we had a pleasant surprise: there were sea lions sunbathing in the afternoon sun on the rocks next to the sea. while there were notices all around not to feed the animals, not to get too close blah blah blah, (in typical singaporean fashion) my brother and i inched so close, we were within a coin's toss of the animal. Settling down to take some photos (no flash: it'd be suicide), I got some really good ones with my brother grinning with the sun in his eyes (squinting bloke).

The journey to Hanmer Springs would involve travelling down to Waiau (further south-west) at least 60km, and then on to Rotherham (10 km) and finally Hanmer (25 km north from Rotherham). It was on this journey we discovered where NZ's veal (deer meat) came from. I had never seen deer in farms before (much less heard of deer farms) and i took some photos as usual.

The remaining journey steadily turned more hilly (we were near or past kaikoura range) and we reached Hanmer Springs at 5pm in the evening. As usual, most of the shops were closed except the bars and restaurants and my parents developed an interest in the real estate of the area (i have no idea why).

It was in the evening, after dinner which we bought at the motel's nearby dairy (minimart) consisting of two frozen ready-made pizzas, a couple of plain buns and some eggs, we settled down and treated ourselves to NZ's television station. It was pretty good, 9 o'clock news along with Alias at 10 pm (my brother was so excited). Sleep.

Cheers,

Crawldaddy