A spring in my step

Jon and Janine lend me one of their cars and I make my first four-wheel foray out into the Kiwi wilds. It's a lovely sunshine-dappled drive north east of Christchurch, the iPod is on shuffle and mountains are shaping up in the distance.
I cross a narrow bridge over a gorge, which looks like the perfect spot for bunjee jumping and sure enough, there on the banks is a company offering 'adrenalin-fuelled thrills on the water'.

I arrive in Hamner Springs, one of the top spots on the South Island for a sulphurous soak, but in this shoulder season the atmosphere is low key with just a few visitors mooching around the crazy golf courses and snacking in the cafes.

It's warm enough to don shorts for a walk up Conical Hill, a hike through tall trees with toadstools nestling in the undergrowth, to a summit open to views north, south, east and west (the W is the view west, natch, with a dusting of early winter snow on the tops). 

I lunch on kumara and cashew pie followed by a piece of ginger slice. Ginger slice is like Millionaire's Shortbread with soft ginger icing instead of caramel and chocolate, not something I've come across before but I must say, as a fan of ginger in any incarnation, I'm hooked.

It's time for the hot springs, $20 for as long as you like lolling around in pools varying in temperatures from 36 to 40 degrees. I have a nice time floating about and listening in to other people's conversations. It's incredible what the heat brings forth but hey, my lips are sealed – what goes on in the springs, stays in the springs.

Duly simmered and basted, I head for home, or Christchurch. My trip back across country and via the coast takes in all sorts of rural delights – a village called Rotherham with a heritage cottage built by an early Irish settler, cows blocking the road in the midst of dairy farming country, the pastel-hued sunset over the chalky coloured cliffs of Gore Bay and, in the fading light, a glimpse of the area's Gothic-style Cathedral Gorge.