We're spending two nights in Hanmer Springs, a resort town Northwest of Christchurch. It's known for its thermal pools.
We decided to give our whole day to the pools. about a 15 minute walk from our AirBnB. Doug was up for one of his early morning runs and then we milled around the house. We left around 10:00am to get to the pools just after opening. We purchased a single day pass with multiple entries so that we could break up our day with lunch back at home. We ended up going for about 2.5 hours in the morning, then back for another 3 hours in the afternoon/early evening.
For families & kiddos the main draw of the thermal pools complex is the water slides. Doug & girls are far more of thrill seekers than I am. We read online beforehand about some of the water ride attractions. The one that stopped all of us in our tracks was the Conical Thrill, New Zealand's largest aquatic thrill ride (eek!). It's a hydroslide that first takes you down a steep drop, only to then propel you "up a near-vertical wall for a moment of weightlessness before zooming back down". No thank you!! Doug & girls were giddy with excitement!
Suffice it to say, when we arrived in the morning, the girls beelined it for the water slide area. They warmed up on the two individual rider water slides, one that was completely dark inside. They were hooked. Next up, the mustered up courage (which took no time at all) to brave the Conical Thrill and Super Bowl (spins you around in a funnel). For both those rides you had to ride in 2-person rafts. Doug happily hoped on the rafts for the rides with the girls. Pure glee on the rides! Literally hours of them on a loop between the four water slide attractions, huge smiles across their faces.
The girls and Doug were encouraging me to brave the slides, knowing they were all well out of my [narrow water rides] comfort zone. I succumbed and said I'd try the more tame of the two individual water slides. They were so excited for me to experience the fun that they were having! It was admittedly quite fun and totally benign, and I ultimately caved to trying the Super Bowl one several times with each girl, and even the pitch dark water slide tube one on my own (once & only once, thank you very much! I was spooked). I never did say yes to trying the near vertical drop of the Concial Thrill; that was waaaay out of my comfort zone. I much prefer the lazy river :) I explained to the girls that I had already stretched well beyond anything I would normally be comfortable with, by going on the other three rides, so that was a success for me! Vertical drops where you experience near weightlessness? That's where I draw the line :) And I further explained to them that seeing how much fun they were having was happiness & thrill enough for me.
Serious hats off to Doug who effectively was Dad of the Year by going on ride, after ride, after ride for hours on end today with the girls. The water play/rides area wasn't exactly our favorite scene, but it was totally worth it to give the girls such a playful, FUN day! They were giddy with joy all day long. The other thermal pools (up to 40 degrees Celcius) were lovely. Most memorable was the sulfur one that stunk to high heaven :) Fair to say that after a day running around on rides/stewing in hot water, we'll all snooze well tonight.
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