Today is a rest day and being in Hanmer Springs means a Spa day. Could be worse.
I went for breakfast and after that to the supermarket for some snackies. The other hikers were planning to join as well but first needed to do some typical town chores. So I went alone, which is fine because they have single-person slides now. So I kept myself entertained.
The others joined and we went into several hot springs to let our bodies recover. After an hour or so most of them were done with the pools and wanted to leave. Incomprehensible to me, first they didn’t even go down a slide and two it’s not cheap. So I planned to stay a LONG time! Which I did. Read my book, ate some snacks, and went down the slides. I even saw the lovely Kiwi family again. I complained to the mom that all the other hikers left and I had no one to go down the 2-person slides with me. She was like oh just grab my teenage sons. I was like I don’t think a 28-year-old woman should ‘grab’ teenage boys in a pool. Might give out the wrong message. So she walked with me and ordered her eldest to join me. He didn’t mind and gave all sorts of tips on how we would have the most speed. It was hilarious and I’m so glad that it all worked out.
After a long shower with multiple rounds of shampoo, I left the Spa fully relaxed and clean. Another dinner with the group and of course the discussion on what to do next. The weather forecast looked dreadful and the southern end of the next section consists of many river crossings that can become uncrossable if it rains a lot. The big group decided to go to Christchurch. I decided to go to Tika and order a new tent. Not only the river crossing would be a problem in rain, but also the fact that my tent isn’t waterproof.
So in the end I was almost a full week of trail.
Zilla-in-the-wild 