I had a brief few days away in the South Island with fam, and thought about how many cool places there would be to live and write. Which is kind of daft, because it doesn't matter where you write, really, home is pretty good if you've got a quiet space. Or do you even need a quiet space if you put on headphones and listen to some non-distracting music? I'm pretty sure I don't.
Anyhoo, one place I did visit on the sojourn South was Hamner Springs, which is a town in North Canterbury in the South Island.
It's around a two hour drive north of Christchurch, and is a touristy-town set in hills, with views to snow-covered mountains, and it has... Hot pools!! It is famous for the hot pools. In fact, at one point the natural hot pools were used for therapeutic reasons, and while there may be some therapeutic claims, I can't say as I felt any different leaving the pools except still a bit damp, very happy I'd finally been, and thinking I would definitely go back again.
I didn't take too many photos because I didn't want to take photos of other people (or selfie myself for that matter.) I would not want people taking photos of me walking from pool to pool in my bathers, that's for sure, and there were people wherever you went, so I just managed a few lame shots. The shot to the right shows the snow capped mountains. Much better in real life. To be honest, you get more of an idea of what the place is by looking at the website here.
But we were there for a couple of hours and we just sat and enjoyed the varying degrees of heat in the pools. Because NZ is still closed to non-Kiwis, it is a good time for us to visit the country and do all those things which, when it all opens up again, will probably be packed.
I still think Hamner Springs would be a neat place to live for a while, especially over winter when the trees are bare, and there is snow up in them mountains, and how good is sitting outside on a chilly day, all wrapped up with a hot drink, just feeling the peace and the freedom? I think its pretty perfect.
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