Hot Springs and Hut trips

With our weeks here winding down and the winter darkness upon us we are still trying to squeeze in a few weekend getaways. First we took a quick weekend to Hanmer Springs, a little alpine resort centered around some natural hot springs. The Springs are now manged by the district council there and seem to me a cross between Glenwood's Hot springs and Thornton's Waterworld. It was quite fun, we lounged in the pools each day and took quick walks in the exotic forests above town and Carolyn use the opportunity of actual stores to shop in to pick up a swim suit for our Cook Island stop on the way home. But hey also had these great Fatties to rent:

Which would have come in handy on this past weekends trip to the Heaphy. We had walked a day hike on the Heaphy, one of the Great Walks of New Zealand, in January and encouraged by Kristen and Angie and their  ROuteburn tramp, we had decided we could manage a backpacking trip as well.

 This was the first actual backpacking trip for Carolyn other than our snowshoe hut trip last winter, in many years. But New Zealand has this great Hut system and the Heaphy hut is brand new and like a castle.

 This is Carolyn when we arrived at the Hut. It had bunks with Mattresses,  6 propane stoves, LED light that came on at night, a wood stove for heat and pre chopped wood. It is supplied by the Dept of Conservation via helicopter. It was very Plush, and with everything supplied, we had much lighter packs than we would on a tent self contained trip

 The hut overlooked a beautiful river outlet into the Tasman Sea. One of the other trampers organized a giant Bonfire on the beach. Most of the other folks spending the night in the hut were bikers, as the Heaphy is open for mountain biking in the winter, It is a rugged 2 to 3  day trip across the mountains and those fat tire bikes would sure of been handy on the sandy segments by the beach the last en miles or so.

 There were four cool suspension bridges on river crossings during the hike and I kept thinking how I could slash the cables after I crossed to watch all the Orcs chasing me fall into the Chasm below. But every time I look back it seemed I had lost them so I left the bridges standing, or suspending, for others to enjoy.

 It was incredibly green and wet though we somehow were lucky enough to make the entire trip with only a bit  of rain.  When we got back to our car Sunday it immediately began to pour. 

ALso, though tattoos are big here, perhaps due to the Maori influence, it certainly was evident at the Hnmer SPrings Pools, If I got one it would be this NZ icon: