Well, another day of contrasts! Having bemoaned our watery fate yesterday we woke this morning (later than usual as we are not moving on today) to find that whilst it was a little cloudy, the sun was winning the battle; we could see the mountains all around us from the campsite and we both felt very much more upbeat.
We had decided to explore the thermal pools and spa in the morning and then perhaps do one of the walks (a short one!) in the afternoon. The weather, though much brighter (and drier), was still quite cool so we walked up in to the town wearing our trainers, with socks (something we haven't got out of the cupboards for a while) and fleeces. The entrance to the pools was very reasonable ($14.00 each for over 60s) and we hired towels for an additional $5.00 each. We changed and put away our clothes etc. into a large locker (we will come back to these) and stepped out towards the pools.
We thought we had made a bit of a mistake as it was still pretty chilly and walking around with almost no clothes on in the equivalent of a brisk autumn morning brought the goose pimples storming out of hiding and even they were shivering. But then, but then we walked into the first pool and it was heaven, just like walking into a very warm bath without the necessity of taking soap and shampoo with you. In an instant we agreed we had certainly made the right decision.
There is quite a complex of pools, all at different temperatures but all warm or warmer or very warm, ranging from pools you can just sit in and watch the world go by, some with hydrotherapy equipment, a large 'swimming' pool where you could do lengths (50m lengths so you knew you had had a swim) and even some sulphur pools which, as you can appreciate, were a little odorous.
There were flumes, water chutes and a pool designed specifically for children. Our immediate thought was that if Isabel ever came here we would only be able to get her out at the end of the day with the use of a large net; she would be in seventh heaven. (Rachel & Steve, if you're reading this, Center Parcs is a poor second to this place!)
Our thoughts of early departure became progressively less and less pressing. The weather played a large part in this as the sky cleared and the sun became increasingly warm; so much so that Bert had to go into the shop and buy a new hat as he had left his in the van, on the basis that there would be no need for any protection in the light of the weather at that time. The hat (chosen by Sue) was great. So good, that Sue decided it suited her better than Bert and (as he already had two with him anyway) it had changed hands by the time we got back to the van.
There was a cafe in the grounds so we reluctantly left the pools and sat and had our lunch. The sun had become so hot by this time that we were pleased to find a table in the shade to eat. We had companions while we ate; a flock of sparrows kept a very close eye on us to see if anything should fall to the ground and some appeared to be so tame that we half expected them to come and sit at the table with us and share the food directly from the plates.
After lunch we decided to have another hour or so and then walk back to the van. Whilst we were in the pool we got into conversation with two sets of people, the first being three generations of one family; grandparents from the east coast of the US with daughter and son-in-law who are living in Christchurch and granddaughter who was born in Christchurch (no more than six months ago looking at her) and is a real water baby.
The second conversation was with two sisters from Australia. One sister had emigrated with her family from the UK some 47 years ago and within a short space of time it appeared that the rest of her family, including her parents and the sister she was with today, had left England to join them. It is really interesting to meet all these people and to hear their stories, it is not the reason you go on holiday but it does provide a real addition to the experience.
Anyway – back to the lockers. They are typical of the approach we seem to have found in most of our experiences in New Zealand, that their citizens and, by natural progression, their visitors, are treated as intelligent beings who are able to think for themselves. The lockers cost $2.00 for two hours and when you want one the system automatically allocates you a locker number to which you then have to allocate an access code and then, shock, horror, you are told that you have to remember both the locker number AND the access code!
At three o'clock we finally extracted ourselves from the pools. It had been a wonderful day going far beyond our expectations and full marks to Jennifer from the iSite at Nelson for the suggestion. It has to be said that we did wonder what we would find to do here for the day but need not have worried; you could easily stay here all day.
We walked slowly back to the 'van, feeling very relaxed and sat outside in the baking sun with cups of tea. Later, in the early evening, we decided to do a short walk (rather than the longer one we had planned to do) from the walks leaflet we found the in the information office in the town.
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