Mountains, smelly pools and thoughtful signs.

Farewelling the haunted house charming cottage in Stepneyville we set off to the south west along State Highway 6. Our night's accommodation, Westport, a mere 3 hours away.

Not that bad in the daylight.

Here's the thing - we thought it might be a tremendous idea to wind our way to within cooee of the east coast for a bit of a dip in the Hanmer Springs Thermal pools, before ducking across the county to the west coast via an un-ending series of mountain bends.

State Highway 6 was not too bad - mainly pastureland full of sheep and cattle. We took a left just after the tiny but very neat village of Murchison, and things got a little mountainous. State Highway 65 wound its way through Kahurangi National Park and alongside some reasonably picturesque mountain streams.

State High 65 eventually runs into State Highway 7 (an east-west route across the South Island) at an intersection called Springs Junction. We turned east and aimed for Lewis Pass - hemmed in by a mountain range that still had some flecks of snow on it despite being mid-January. The views were awesome, with Jen more than a little excited by the sudden proliferation of lupins along the roadside. I was a little less excited by the combination of sharp bends, campervans, and random road works that lasted the entire way to Hanmer Springs.

Hanmer Springs

Thermal Pool and Spa

We arrived in Hanmer Springs at around 1pm and despite the warm day, the Thermal Park was packed. The kids were very keen to try all of the water slides (which they certainly did), while I was pleased to just soak and not keep an eye out for passing lanes for a while. I eventually left the tamer 38 degree pools (for the young and weak - clearly) and made my way up to the Sulfur Pool, surely just a few degrees below a gentle simmer. I had braced myself for the heat, but not for the pungency (I know, I know - it's in the title). I moved from pool to pool in an attempt osmotically de-funkify, prior to the next leg of our journey.

The way back through Lewis Pass was comparatively devoid of campervans, with the various road crews having packed up for the day (it was admittedly 3:40pm by this stage, a late start for a cross-country journey in anyone's books). Once we made it past Springs Junction however - State Highway 7 resumed its theme of markedly convoluted roads, punctuated with campers and very few passing lanes. The addition of heavily-laden cyclists doing substantially less than 80-100km/hr made the crests and hairpin turns all the more exciting.

Lupins! I'm not going to tell you that this photo involved coming to a complete halt in the middle of a highway.

We paralleled another river through gorges westward, with the road hugging the cliff-side at times. There were a few blind corners with only a single lane available - the warning light (alternating green/red to prevent collisions) was not working. Handily, instead of actually fixing the thing - the local council had erected what appeared to be a fairly long-term sign saying "lights not working, proceed with caution". Thanks for that.

Not ideal.

The road at some points was carved out of the rock itself - just the one lane of course.

Even less ideal - thank goodness the sign said to proceed with caution.

Coastal clouds fairly put out by the largish mountain range getting in the road.

We somehow made it to Westport at 6:45pm (only 15 minutes later than planned), and due to New Zealand operating on its own diurnal cycle, there was still plenty of light left in the day at that point. Jen made a friend at the check-out of New World Supermarket (the cashier ultimately giving us a local discount and a fuel voucher), and we settled in for the night - fairly pleased that we were remaining relatively close to Westport the following day.