Top of South Island Day 5

We had been exploring the Top of South Island for the last four days.   We arrived  ‘Rainy Nelson’ yesterday (or Day 4 – 3/1/16).

Day 5 – 4/1/16
The weather was back to normal.  We were in ‘Sunny Nelson’ which earned its name being one of the sunniest places in New Zealand.

We started the day looking for the centre of New Zealand.  Due to time constraint (or being a little unfit perhaps) we did not take the walk.  The views looking down from the top of the hill were lovely.

Next stop was Miyazu Garden, a little slice of Japan offering a quiet place for a stroll or a spot of contemplation.

In the same vicinity was Founders Park, a replica village creatred to bring the charms of days gone by.  A nice place to visit for a laid back kind of adventure, especially for family with young children. Entry was $7 and free for locals. I thought it would be nice if the village has ‘live’ shops.  For example there was a bakery (currently without bread) and an apple factory (with no apples). If the bakery was a real bakery and some apples displayed in the factory, then the whole village would spring to life. On the day we visited the village was pretty quiet.

Day 5 was a day of long hours of travel in our rented car to Hanmer Springs.  We took the direct route via Lewis Pass through Murchison with scenic stop at Maruia Falls.

We finally arrived Hanmer Springs around 5pm, dropped our bags into the motel and soaked in the Thermal Pools and stayed till the pool closed for the day. After 9pm there was hardly any restaurant open and was disappointing we did not have kitchen facilities at our motel. Nevertheless, we were made it to Monteith Brewery Bar and the food there was as good as we remembered.

Finally we made it to Hanmer Springs.  It was so nice to travel on a vibrant sunny day after two days of rain since we left Kaikoura to Nelson.

Follow us on our last day 6 of our trip to the top of South Island.

Final post of our adventure coming soon ………………..