Woke up this morning at 6:18 way earlier than my alarm and tried very hard to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, my bladder had other ideas and I was forced to get up and go to the loo! I did get back into bed and replied to a few messages, checked Facebook and rested some more. My knee was still hurting from Thursday evening and I was hoping that I would be okay.
This morning I dressed without showering as we were going to Hanmer Springs – a water park with natural thermal waters. I then had two cups of tea and toast while helping Cheron make cheese and bacon sandwiches. Once we were all set we piled into the car and went off to collect Castell from the YHA. Fortunately, Cheron and Chris have an eight seater so we all fried in the one car. We were then on our way down the highway – an ordinary two lane road that probably wouldn’t pass as a bypass in the UK!

We stopped off at the Brick Mill Cafe which had a couple of antique shops and craft shops as well as a tea room. We all had a good browse. I did see a real nice hall stand but unfortunately it wouldn’t have fitted in my suitcase!

  
There were lots of interesting items and I ink everyone enjoyed looking at something! Then refreshments were consumed and bladders were emptied before we set off on our final leg. My knitting and a game of I spy made the journey pass more quickly.
We got to the Spring at about 12:00 and set up camp on a couple of sun loungers and off we all went.

I spent a good half an hour in a lovely warm pool resting my knee and chatting with Cheron. Castell and the boys were off down the water slides and had great fun. Then it was time for a spot of lunch for myself – most of the food was eaten on the way up! So I had a couple of cheese sandwiches, a few crisps (smoked paprika flavour! 😀) and some apple chunks. I then waited for a woman to finish using the lap lane in the biggest pool. Eventually, she was done and I managed to get into it before anyone else. This pool was about half the size of the pool at Byron so I thought 20 would be about the same exercise. My knee was still painful but the more I did the more my knee eased. The water was also warmer than the one at Byron which I think helped. Once I was done with the laps I got into an even hotter pool than the first one – up to 42 degrees and it was great to just sit about in the warm water. I chatted to Castell and the boys a bit and then they went off to do other things and Cherry (Cheron’s Mum) and I had a lovely chat. After about half an hour we got a bit too hot and moved to a Aqua therapy pool which was cooler but with jets – which were all taken at the time. And then it was time to think about getting ready to go home. So a quick rinse in the showers and a warming cup of tea for me and various other refreshments for the others and we were on our way back.

The scenery was amazing with mountains, a single lane bridge over a ravine and wide river beds all featured. Castell took lots of photos and I asked him to forward them to me so I can put them in here!
The journey seemed faster on the way back and I continued to knit and we played another game using categories and the alphabet. We dropped Castell back at the hostel and then made it home for just gone 7.
I got on with the dishes from the morning, Cheron made pizza and Chris was sorting out a problem from work and the boys were playing. The pizza was great. Once supper was over the boys went to bed and I chatted some more with Cheron and managed some more knitting. I have officially completed the middle square so I feel I am well on track to completing this throw.

Quote for today.