Now at the Christchurch airport, we are almost sad to leave this wonderful country. Our last day we spent driving through the Southern Alps to Hanmer Springs, where we plunged into the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools (suggestion from the Christchurch guy we met in the plane to Auckland). A nice relaxing afternoon soaking in the spring waters seemed to us the best way to conclude the trip. And nice it was :-). The more perhaps because they had a super bowl waterslide, that kind of looked like a big toilet. On floating rafts we sled down a steep pipe to end in a giant bowl where you made several circles until being flushed down (mostly backwards) to the end of the slide. Rafts for two people were a lot faster than those for only one, but hanging in- (centripetal) or outwards (centrifugal) did not have a significant impact on speed and number of rounds before the flush down. As we tested. Also two older women, who had a bit more weight to carry down than us, enjoyed their ride. They made noise for a complete kindergarten and came out the first pipe with enormous speed. Fun it was, even on a for me (Elise) sad day. The person who invented this thing should be nominated for the Nobel prize. For peace. For making adults laugh like young children.
Bye bye New-Zealand. Hope we meet again.