Walking in the Woods And A Cool Cafe

Sunday 14 June

A surprisingly warm night - went to bed at 4*C and woke briefly at 6am to 9*C - what wonky winter weather we are getting!

We pottered gently then drove up to Hanmer itself to take a walk up Conical Hill to check out the layout of the land from the lookout there. I had a quick wander in the grounds of the old hospital first - from Amuri Hospital to Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer - this was another concrete construction from early last century; but here the focus was primarily on soldiers returning from war with the newly identified affliction of “shell shock”. Amazingly this building went through various iterations and only stopped operating as a public hospital in 2003. One of the sun filled rooms at the end of the building reminded me of the "jaundice room" at the maternity hospital - I wonder what will become of this place in Hanmer? We know from Sarah at Amuri Manor that there are a lot of issues involved with renovating these old concrete buildings - the walls are solid as, but you can’t drill into them, they sweat with changes in temperature and the windows are all made of 3mm glass which does not meet today’s standards. The individual rooms are very small and the conjoined concrete structure makes it almost impossible to remove and replace internal walls.

After heading to the bike departure spot rather than the walking trail, we found a parking space at the base of the Conical Hill Track and set off up the zigzag path through the tall whispering pines - some of which had come down in the spring winds back in October 2025. We met Indie the blondie goldie on one of the zigzag corners - she was lovely and we had a fab chat with her grandad who was in charge while her two mums were on holiday. What a cutie 🤍

We stopped at the top to enjoy the panoramic views from the lookout - stunning landscapes in all directions. I chose to believe that the S for South was actually S for Sarah 😉

We came down another path and followed a lovely loop track, detouring through the township and paused before returning to the Pajero for lunch at Powerhouse Cafe in town - what a great little place - it was absolutely buzzing and we soon found out why… great food, served quickly and AMAZING pastries and muffins ($5.50 for a huge apple, rhubarb & berry muffin - bargain these days). Met Lexie the Goldie who had been for a dip and was exhausted - sprawling all over the cafe floor! Louis selected the big breakfast and I risked the Eggs Montreal - like a bene but with smoked salmon not bacon - yum! The sparrows all swarmed in as soon as anyone stood up to leave - cheeky buggers!

Walked back up the hill to collect the Pajero then headed up into the hills on the other side of town to visit the Forest Amble Sculpture Trail which was short and sweet and took in a number of fun wooden carved sculptures - many native like the tuatara, kahu hawk, ruru and possum - and some not so much, like the swinging orangutan.

The terrible winds last spring came through the forest and took out a heap of trees, so many of the easy bike trails up here are closed, but the walking track is still open. And the birdsong in the trees here is phenomenal - we saw and heard so many korimako (bell birds) and piwakawaka (fantails) 🎶

Back at Banjo we did some work then cooked burgers for dinner before deciding to start watching Downton Abbey again from the start… this could be a long binge!