Anyone for a dip...

An early start this morning got us on the road to Hanmer Springs, a thermal resort.
We drove through some stunning scenery on the way and my driver, Kevin, was happy to stop as when we came across a view to capture on camera!!!!

Our route took us over Lewis Pass which is pretty high up and we were so pleased when it was snowing, even though we had to put on snow chains...sorry, not we, Kevin, had to put on snow chains. It was like something out of the Krypton Factor and Kev wasn't sure if he was actually meant to wear them!!

Anyway we were very glad of them as the snow came down pretty hard as we got higher up..it was fantastic. We managed to stop for a few minutes so the children could have a snowball fight(Grace got Dan a beauty with a snowball that ended up sliding down his pants!!!) and then we moved on to Hanmer Springs.
We found a motel that was right next door to the Thermal Pools and checked in. As it is winter here everywhere has vacancies so we could pick and choose. The place we chose, the Hanmer Springs Resort Motel couldn't have been better..a two bedroom unit with heating and cooking facilities, all for about 50 quid(no pound sign on this computer-funny!).

Togs on and it was off to the Thermal Pools. The temperature outside was probably less than 10 degrees and we were going for a swim outside....a bit mad really. But wow, what a place. It had a series of thermal pools in the rocks that were different temperatures from 29 to 41 degrees. There was also a family pool with warm hydroslides which was great fun. We started off there and it was freezing walking up the steps to the slides but lovely when you landed in the water. The pools in the rocks were heavenly and the scenery around us just spectacular with snow-capped peaks. It was all very surreal! The really hot ones (40 and 41 degrees) stank of sulphur but it was so relaxing. we spent nearly two hours wallowing in the pools, getting frozen moving between them but then having an exhilirating feeling stepping back into the warmth. It wasn't very busy either which was a bonus...think we need some of these pools in Lordswood, it would be lovely to go at lunch time!!