Thursday 5^th February Hanmer Springs

Got away early, sad to leave Tony at Carlconna House as we had got on so well over the three days that he had become a friend. Uneventful drive at first over Takaka Hill – this is an understatement. Takaka Hill is a mountain that separates Golden Bay from the rest of the world. The single road across is the only way in or out except by walking four or five days.

Then we drove at first through young steep river valleys, then older valleys with flat floors and finally huge glacial 'U' shaped valleys with braided rivercourses sprawling across their floors. Stopped in Murchison for coffee then on across the Alpine Fault from the Australasian plate to the Pacific plate.

Hanmer Springs is a delightful quiet, open town centred on the thermal springs at the confluence of several mountain valleys. We found the comfortably appointed Hanmer Resort Motel easily. After a game of mini-golf which was a closer contest than before, although of similar outcome, we went to the Thermal Baths.

We entered at the Over 60's reduced rate, and so after two hours soaking in the various thermal pools with views across the trees to the enclosing mountains, became officially both old and wrinkly.

Friday 6^th February

Started early and drove past Christchurch on the gently undulating Canterbury Plain to the village of Akeroa. This is set on the waterfront inside an old volcano that has been breached by the sea on one side, crating a sheltered harbourage. It was formerly a French colony and the road names are still French. Our motel, the comfortable Driftwood Wai iti was on the waterfront and for a few dollars we hired their two person kayak and paddled up and down the length of the bay. It was faster than a single kayak, but surprisingly difficult to steer.

Today is Waitangi Day. This commemorates the signing of the first treaty between the Maori and the British Government. It was a bi-lingual treaty, both in English and Maori, but because Maori was a phonetic, idiomatic language, the translation was somewhat ambivalent as many of the concepts had no direct counterpart. Hence the Maori with no equivalent for the word 'pre-emption' were later surprised to find that they could only sell their land to the Crown. Thus the treaty perpetuated troubled relations rather than solving them.

A similar state of affairs prevailed at supper time, when we had eaten a nicely prepared barbecue on the lawn of a local restaurant and were surprised to find the bill 15% higher than stated. This was explained as the Waitangi day surcharge, which all New Zealanders know about but foreign tourists do not. This neatly exemplifies how the Maori must have felt about British traditions.