No rush getting up this morning. After overnight rain the day looked promising. By 10am we were at the Waterfall\/Mount Isobel trail head (up McIntyre Road) and on our way up.<\/p>\n

The foliage around us was much greener and lush than that we’ve got used to further south. The change had been apparent on the drive north yesterday but it came home as we got into the forest and hiked through it.<\/p>\n

The trail started as a gentle climb but became steeper and steeper. We passed by the side trail to the waterfall in good time and pressed on upwards. We’re definitely fitter than when we started this visit to NZ but our heart rates were up on this one and our legs felt it.<\/p>\n

The trail we were on would eventually reach Mount Isobel and it was in our mind to get there. As soon as we reached the ridge at the top of our ascent we were pummeled by strong winds. Although it was a warm day the wind chilled us. It almost blew off Helen’s sunglasses.<\/p>\n

We therefore abandoned the last leg of the hike satisfied with the stunning views we had already experienced. We could see all the way over the valley in which Hanmer Springs sits and over the mountains on the far side. We descended a short way to get out of the wind and find some shade from the sun to eat our lunch.<\/p>\n

Continuing on down was tricky due to the steepness of the trail but we made it down to the waterfall without incident. We had a brief rest there before continuing on down back to the car.<\/p>\n

It was still early afternoon so we stopped off at a combination maze\/mini golf attraction. You’ve probably guessed I like mazes and we were in need of a mini golf rematch since Helen’s last hole victory last week. We had fun there.<\/p>\n

After that we headed back to our cabin to rest. Within an hour the weather turned cold and wet. We’d timed it well.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n

This’ll be it for Hanmer Springs. Tomorrow we’re heading on up to Blenheim for a few days and then onto Picton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No rush getting up this morning. After overnight rain the day looked promising. By 10am we were at the Waterfall\/Mount Isobel trail head (up McIntyre Road) and on our way up.<\/p>\n

The foliage around us was much greener and lush than that we’ve got used to further south. The change had been apparent on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-zealand","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4206,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions\/4206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aboarddignity.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}