Hanmer Springs

We’ve seen a lot of the South Island in the last 11 months. Nearly everything that we wanted to visit had been covered except Hanmer Springs. As it is only a 1.5 hour drive from Christchurch, we took a little day trip there a couple weekends ago.

Hanmer Springs is the primary thermal area in the South Island, so it’s quite popular with tourists and locals alike because of a number of natural spring spas as well as beautiful scenery and area attractions. There is also a nice wine region called the Waipara very nearby. Being fall, it was a great time to visit because the crowds are smaller but the weather is still pleasant and the valleys are bursting with color.

We started off with a little brunch in the village before heading out to a forest park for a short hike.

Hanmer is also on the way to Lewis Pass which is the only one of the four passes across the Southern Alps that we had not taken. We still didn’t take it all the way across, but we did drive in quite a ways to check it out.

We really didn’t spend a lot of time at Hanmer, but we did want to stop at MudHouse Winery on the way back. The main winery/restaurant building is very impressive and you can’t miss it when you are driving south to Christchurch on Highway 1. The vines were bright yellow, orange, and red. Quinn had a fun time running around the grounds and we all shared a dessert after doing a tasting and picking out a couple bottles. A great fall day!!