Travelling to Hanmer Springs

It was a long day of travelling yesterday, although the scenery was spectacular as always. We stopped first at The Merina Shop in Tarras for coffee. The Merino Shop complex includes a small restaurant and a store which has upmarket food, and picnic gear. This is a popular tourist stop.

We travelled initially through the centre of the South Island, via the Lindis Pass (see photo) that looked unusually green and the McKenzie country that is famous for its merino wool. McKenzie stole some sheep and grazed them in this part of the country. When he was caught other people noticed it was great for grazing sheep so started to settle there and named the area McKenzie country
We stopped and admired Mt Cook, which reluctantly poked its top through the clouds for us, and then onto Lake Tekapo for a picnic lunch with all the other tourists milling around us. We stopped in Geraldine for a very necessary cup of coffee. The cafe was set in the most beautiful garden which was quite a find. Then it was onto Highway 1, around the outskirts of Christchurch and up to Waipara where we turned off towards Hanmer Springs.

Altogether we travelled through Otago, Canterbury and finished in Malborough. It was a journey that took 9 hours, although we did stop for 2 hours along the journey.

We were very glad to see our bed at the end of the journey!