Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs is a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 65 kilometres southwest of Kaikoura (135 km by car), in the Hurunui District. The town lies on a minor road 9 kilometres north of State Highway 7, the northern route between Christchurch and the West Coast via Lewis Pass. According to the 2006 census, the resident population is 729. The town is built around a popular hot spring which was discovered in the late 19th century. The hot springs were produced by the fractured rock bed along the Hanmer fault. Hanmer Springs' Queen Mary Hospital, the South Island's leading rehabilitation centre for sufferers of drug addiction, was controversially closed in 2003. The premises were purchased...