If you're after relaxation and exhilaration, then stop at Hanmer Springs. Shawn McAvinue visits the alpine village for the weekend.
On a road trip north, it's easy to get white-line fever and stick to State Highway 1.
Do yourself a favour, break the habit and turn left at Waipara for a couple of days in Hanmer Springs.
In the alpine village, you can soak away stress, relax with a riesling and get the pulse racing with an adrenaline activity.
After turning off, a leg stretch was needed so we stopped our wagon in Hurunui.
At Hurunui Village, my wife Amanda and our 1-year-old son Cormac is greeted by Wag the dog.
The border collie will happily offer patrons a paw to high-five, as his owners, Rodger and Nola Strong, serve a Devonshire tea.
If you care for something stronger, you could sip on one of the four wines produced from the village vineyard.
Rodger and Nola are former Arrowtown residents, and Rodger worked around Otago building new homes to look 100 years old.
He built some of the old-looking houses in the vineyard as high-end accommodation to make Hurunui Village the "Cardrona Hotel of Canterbury''.
Back on the Lewis Pass road heading for Hanmer Springs, the scenery is ridiculously beautiful - a massive cattle beast grazing in a paddock looks like a posterboy for the primary industry.
On arrival in the alpine village, our hotel, the Heritage Hanmer Springs, meets all expectations.
All I know of the place is that former National MP Aaron "Don't you know who I am?'' Gilmore was unhappy with the service in 2013, but it's hard to imagine why.
The Spanish-inspired architecture, manicured gardens and its location within walking distance of everything you need is hard to fault.
With the bags dropped off, it's a short walk to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools & Spa for a massage to unwind into the weekend.
During the treatment, the Fijian masseuse ran her elbow down my trapezium muscle, and simultaneously scratched the other, melting away months of deadline stress.
After the massage I went for a soak in the open-air thermal hot pools at dusk .
The retreat has three aquatherapy pools, a heated freshwater lap pool with children's play area and waterslides and interconnecting grottos.
It was a Friday night and the pools were busy, bursting with bathers from around the world.
The $7.1 million upgrade the pools had three years ago seems to be money well spent.
The soak ensured it didn't take much rocking to sleep till dawn.
To holiday with a 1-year-old guarantees 6am starts and poses a challenge in Hanmer Springs because businesses in the village don't open until 10am.
Luckily, I'd arranged for an early morning "Pedal Pops'' experience on a quadricycle.
The colourful contraptions from Village Pedal Pops are a unique way to explore the 500m of the village's business district and some residential back streets.
Unfortunately my co-pilot's short legs had me pedalling for two.
My heart rate was up and I wanted to maintain the beat so left the family at the hot pools and went to the Thrillseekers Adventures depot at the Waiau River.
On offer at the depot is jet boating, quad biking, rafting, paintballing, claybird shooting, canoeing and bungy jumping.
Nearly 50,000 people have taken the 35m-high bungy jump from the perfectly stable Waiau Ferry Bridge.
I won't be one of them.
I opted to take the 22km jet-boat trip.
The boat's twin V8 motors pumping out 640 litres of water per second, with the capability of travelling in just 10cm of water, is a beautiful sight.
The passengers on the boat include a granddad and grandson, sitting behind me.
I overheard some pre-journey advice from the grandfather to grandson: "if the boat flips, swim to shore, don't wait under the boat to be rescued''.
I'm sure the grandfather was attempting to share some worldly wisdom but the advice blew the boy's mind, sending his imagination into overdrive.
On the trip, the boat travels under the 77.7m-long wrought iron and kauri bridge and speeds towards the stunning backdrop of the Southern Alps.
The boat then blasts past the Hope Fault, the exposed faultline running from Hawarden to Kaikoura.
From the boat, you can see my next stop, Marble Point Winery, for lunch with the family.
The family-owned-and-operated boutique vineyard planted its first grapes in 2004.
The 5.2ha of grapes produce top notch pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling and sauvignon blanc.
Sheryl Dennis, with son Conrad Adams and his partner Olivia Timpson run the vineyard, cellar door and restaurant.
The day we visited, Conrad had spent the morning pig hunting before serving us samples of the family's wines.
Conrad is welcoming but is a straight-shooter, who won't suffer wine snobs and has been known to show the cellar doors to those overly critical of the wines.
Not that he needs to defend the family drop, the gold medal wins say enough.
The food is top notch too.
Back to the village and it's time for some child-time at Hanmer Springs Animal Park.
At the park, children can talk to a Tibetan yak, feed willow to a wallaby or milk to a lamb.
The lamb's bottle is now empty, and so is my coffee, so we walk back to the hotel and spot two hens' night parties roaming the streets: one group wears tutus, the other orange jumpsuits.
Hanmer Springs is a popular wedding destination.
This ain't Vegas but if you find yourself in the village wanting to get married, give celebrant Debbie Moody a call, she knows everything about village life.
The wedding options in the village range from a BYO affair in a forest to exclusively booking the 24 suites at Select Braemar Lodge & Spa.
At the lodge, a popular extra for many bridal parties is booking a helicopter to the lodge for the ceremony and then flying to the alps for photographs.
However, sometimes the bride and groom are grounded by the infamously strong winds that can rattle the region. In 1874, a northwest gale destroyed the only bridge accessing the village.
As we settle for dinner at the restaurant Malabar on Saturday, the night is calm.
The restaurant owners, husband and wife Sudip Misra and Anette Paees, opened the restaurant in 2003 after moving from Mumbai, a population change of 18 million to 800.
Mrs Paees said after she arrived in the village, she doubted she would last a week but quickly grew to love it.
However, to stay sane, the family holidays in a bustling city, somewhere with no trees or mountains and lots of people.
The food they serve is sensational, combining top-notch New Zealand fare and spice, such as Kashmiri rogan josh of Canterbury lamb shank or pan-seared scallops, sticky pork belly, pickled spring onion, with Earl Grey salt.
Book a table to avoid disappointment.
Another sound sleep and it's Sunday and another early morning, pushing my boy in his stroller around the empty village streets, when an elderly woman stops to talk.
"I was last here 30 years ago and it looked nothing like this,'' she says.
A farm manager made the first European discovery of the thermal pools in 1859 and ever since the village has been developing, offering plenty to do: boutique shops, mini putt, mazes, golf, woodland walks and pubs with dog bowls outside.
Hanmer Springs has something for everyone but our weekend away is over and we load the wagon, and return to SH1.
But we resist the highway's hypnotic pull and stop at the cafe and winery at Waipara Hills to catch a summer concert, a wine and platter to share.
There's no great rush to return to highway living just yet.
• Shawn McAvinue was hosted by Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa, Heritage Hanmer Springs and Debbie Moody of Amazing Days.
