We woke up this morning to a bright sunny day which was welcome after the rain of yesterday. Everything still felt soggy but looked fresher at the same time. The ground beneath the motorhome was solid so we had no concerns about getting stuck as we headed back into the township of Hanmer. Bruce had seen a couple of walks and we wanted to try one before hitting the road again.
First stop though was a stop at the bakery to see if they had any french sticks that Bruce liked so much the last time we were here. Unfortunately they didn’t, so we headed off down a path that we found around the corner.
As it turned out, the path headed through bush around the perimeter of a part of the Queen Mary Hospital, which is now closed. We were first greeted with the sight of bright red toadstools. I have seen the occassional one in the past, but never in such a perfect state or in groups like we saw today. Very picturesque while being highly dangerous.
Further along the path we smelt the odour of sulphur, and found a little spring that appeared to be coming out of the bank. It was steaming, so clearly hot, and the water was white with silica. This probably came from the same source as that used by the hot springs a little up the road. As the stream carried on, the weeds at the bottom of the stream were all white which looked a bit odd. Even further on the stream water looked like it had diluted milk in it, which you might have thought was pollution if you didn’t know where it came from.
We had not realised the size of the Queen Mary complex. Last time we were here we walked around the main building without realising all the other buildings that were here and also shut down and boarded up. What a waste of infrastructure.
After our walk we headed back to the bakery and Bruce was lucky enough to score his french stick this time. They must have just got some more out of the oven! We also got ourselves a bit of lunch and then headed out of town.
We stopped just outside Hanmer to admire the scenery – it never gets old. There was a brave young woman bungy jumping from the bridge pictured above but there was a lot of screaming as she did so. Looking the other way is the beautiful braided river surrounded by majestic hills.
We expected the road to be busy, and it certainly was. The number of trucks coming the other way was ridiculous, and this combined with the number of roadworks made travelling a bit slow going.
Every now and again we stopped off for another look at the world around us. We had not travelled this small part of the road before. We loved all the rivers, the mountains, the beautiful bush and some of the farmland. We found one river with a broken down swing bridge that had collapsed at one end with bits of metal dangling in the river below.
We also passed a big lot of forest that was all burnt and charred. This fire happened two days after we had passed through the area on our way south, and we were astonished at the extent of the fire.
We arrived back in Murchison late in the afternoon, and set up camp in the NZMCA park. It is a bit different here today with one other Dethleffs motorhome as well as a Dethleffs caravan.
We took the dogs for a walk down town to re-visit the butcher that we were impressed with the last time we were here, and purchased some steak for tea as well as some corned beef for tomorrow. We will try out our 12v crockpot again for that.
We also had a quick visit to the Dust and Rust second hand store that was closed the last time we were here. I found a dinnerset the same as one I was given as a wedding present in 1974. There were a couple of treadle Singer sewing machines (still working) and a reel to reel
tape recorder the same as the one Bruce destroyed as a youngster (his parents had just bought it but Bruce wanted to see how it worked!). Then we headed back to the motorhome for some french bread andf cheese, a beer and some relaxation. Such a tough life!
Away From Home NZ 