the nanny

A gentle day today. I drove to Hanmer Springs, a hot springs town (hence the name McFly) inland from Christchurch and Kaikura, but between the two towns, so an ideal place to stop. Im taking a very sedate route through the South Island, and finding it to be the most stimulating and least stressful way.

I got there after a gentle drive through the hills and arrived just after lunch, finishing off the last of my Morrocan mess stew. I had plenty of time and the weather was sunny, so I wandered to the hot pools. The pools are large, hot and all smell of sulphur, especially the sulphur pools. Funny that. Its warm, bubbly, relaxing and beautiful. The place is landscaped like a random wild swimming pool; a number of rock pools are linked by gushing hot spring water, 3 hexagonal hot pools are arranged outside the changing area, designed for warming up, the sulphur pools are off to one side and a lot hotter than the other pools, and raised, overing a view of the whole area. Steam slowly rises from these, and the water overflows to the next pool and

the pool after that. This is all cheesy but it knows it.

I think this was the first bath I have had in months, and certainly the most luxurious I have had in years.

The town of Hanmer Springs also seems to be the ideal place for business conferences, as the majority of people at the hostel were staying for just that. They all worked for 'The Warehouse', a national bargain hypermarket in NZ, and decided that the best thing to do before the conference was to play drinking games the evening before. Sounds good, especially if Im invited, which I was.

After a couple of hours though, I really had to eat, and if you stop drinking, you dont really start again, especially if they had moved on to spirits. That left me talking to . . .

The Nanny

The Nanny has been the worst person I have encountered so far. The theives I never encountered, immigration staff are just doing their job, pissed kids in hostels are just having fun, alcoholic managers in hostels have issues that are their own problems that only they can solve, but Mrs Nanny was no Mary Poppins. I was so angry after meeting her that I wrote about her in my journal.

"A displeasing face; this was my first impression. This was someone who, while enjoyed travelling, did not learn anything from anyone on her journey."

"I have never enjoyed listening to a story that begins 'I have a great interest in my hobbie blah blah'. This to my ears sounds like, 'I am trying to impress you with my wide range of skills and know you will be suitably impressed' when in fact they really want to say 'I dont think I have a very interesting life, so I will dress it up so you might like me'". Plus why call it a hobby? If you collect stamps you dont say " I have an

interesting hobby of collecting the labels used to notify the postal service that one has paid for carriage."

The melodramtic raise of eyebrows to convey shock or to indicate to the recipient of her monologue that now was an appropriate moment to exhibit a gasp or nod in agreement with The Nanny and her opinion. These eyebrows covered critical eyes, yet they werent perceptive enough to watch the boredom creep across my face, only show a look of disgust as I rebelled and showed an opinion opposite to that which was correct. ie hers.

Conceited, blindly ignorant to her own ignorance, a person who pointed, not just to indicate, but there was venom in her veins as she held the gesture, she made disparaging comments on her travelling companion, she patronised, interrupted, criticised, corrected and gave education where none was wanted. Being the polite sort I bit my tongue but you ever think of employing a nanny, she is ideal if you are looking to crush the spirit of your children and for them to suffer inadequacy complexes throughout the whole of their life. Her arrogance and narrowmindedness was poisonous, and no matter how hard I tried, which was more than she did, I could never see her point of view.

There is more, but I think I got a little carried away. Hanmer springs is a nice town though, and the YHA I stayed at is clean but lacks character, apart from the one I met.