Hanmer Springs

An inland resort popular with people from Christchurch and the Canterbury area, Hanmer also attracts tourists who delight in its natural thermal hot pools. It offers a wide variety of other outdoor activities, like a beautiful golf course, forest walks and splendid mountain scenery. It can be reached on a day tour from Christchurch which includes jet boating, wine tasting and a visit to the the thermal pools.

Hanmer is just a few kilometres off Highway 7 which cuts east-west through the mountains at Lewis Pass. It is also at the southern end of the Molesworth High County Station back country road that starts inland from Blenheim. This road enters the plain over Jollies Pass, remembering Edward Jollie, one of two men who drove 1800 sheep through the area in 1852. Originally the Hanmer Plain was called Hamilton Plains after William Hamilton, private secretary to Governor Robert Fitzroy. But, when the local post office was named Hanmer Springs in 1905 to honour the work of the Canterbury pioneer Thomas Hanmer, a manager of the extensive St Leonards Station to the east of Culverden, it was taken up as the official name for the area.

The small resort town of Hanmer, tucked against the mountains of North Canterbury, has much to offer the visitor. An easy hour and a half drive from Christchurch, the resort is an appealing destination for a day trip or weekend away. Surrounded by one of the oldest exotic plantations in New Zealand, the town is at its best in autumn when the many deciduous trees flare with colour.

Planting began here in 1903, using prison labour over the next decade to transform the windy tussock landscape into a mixed-species forest. Although most of the trees planted were timber species, many other trees were planted for autumn colour and to attract bird life. At the same time, the forest was intended to provide recreation for walkers. The many short walks of up to one hour are now maintained by the Department of Conservation in conjunction with the timber company, Carter Holt Harvey, which has taken over the exotic production forest. Longer walks into the native beech forest and up onto the surrounding tops are also possible.

Both for walkers and the less physically inclined, relaxation in the hot pool complex, set amongst rocky landscaping and plantings in the centre of the township, is a big attraction. This complex had its beginnings in the 1870s, in a muddy pond surrounded by swampland, where bathers had the use of a small shed built on the bank. As more and more people were attracted to the hot pools and Hanmer developed as a spa town, a tourist-oriented government built a larger building in late 1897 to serve as a lodging house. This became a properly staffed sanatorium in 1908.

When the building burnt down in 1914, the Queen Mary Hospital was built on the same site for use by shell-shocked and gassed soldiers returning form the First World War. After the Second World War, the hospital took in patients with drug and alcohol addictions, building up a reputation for successful treatment. In March 2004, the Canterbury District Health Board decided the historic hospital was no longer needed. The future of the building and its grounds is now uncertain, although efforts are being made to protect their heritage status.

HANMERSPRINGS THERMAL POOLS AND JET BOAT DAY TRIP FROM CHRISTCHURCH

HANMER SPRINGS THERMAL POOL ENTRY AND LUNCH VOUCHER

HANMER SPRINGS NATURAL THERMAL POOLS ADMISSION TICKET