The kids suggest Hanmer Springs where there is massage, hot pools and a water park. The hub and I want to start heading south. The kids emphatically insist. They see sign; I have never been one to suffer in silence. Perhaps it was the institution of a new penal code that led them to conclude my crazy had come out? The code was heinous and unthinkable- whoever ticked me off the worst that day would have to sleep with the vitamins. If I could capture an odor as a file and attach it to this posting you would get just how gruesome this punishment was. Filled with wheat grass and spirulina..the dam things stunk up the whole space- not even the fridge could encapsulate the odor. The compressed wood just drinks in the odor and add a humid mist... The kids knew mommy's lid had flipped and it was time to throw her in the operant conditioning spa treatment box...in Hanmer Springs. It wil be 2 days out of our way but we give in to the kids and head north. They plotted the entire course and we have to reward that initiative. Plus, it's only been a couple of days in NZ and we are already in need of respite. We are adjusting to sharing the small space. We pay outrageous fees for internet per computer and it never seems to work. Work has hit the fan for the hub- 8pm is the start of business in Europe so after driving all day he paces between the campground community TV room and kitchen in search of a quiet workspace where his voice can be contained from the sleeping masses in the park. He shuts his makeshift office down around 6am then sneaks into the nest for dawn literally having just 40 winks before he has to get up and empty the poo, refill the water and drive the big rig for hours upon end. The kids aren't getting any schoolwork done- the tight space, random schedule and lack of internet does not lend itself. Even with the threat of vitamins I can't impose structure. It's just the beginning and we are feeling done and rethinking the whole trip. We pull up to a roadside vista. I am in the depths of despair as the pain in my back will not let up. A frisky elderly couple with "Highlight of Our Twilight" on their camper emerge to investigate the intrusion of their vista. They are refreshed yet disheveled- an obvious afternoon delight. Son of a beehive. There is no way they are performing the wild thing on a converted table top with 6 cushion-breaks across their action. They must be tricked out in there. Lightbulb. This fisher-price sized particleboard castle will not break me.... Next town we come to, I am going to pimp my ride. Hope is re-ignited. We take to solving the problems at hand. 1. Schooling will have to wait until we are out of the camper. 2. We locate a camp store…I never had an issue in all my years camping in raw nature on an air mattress. I need more nature, less parking lots and an air mattress. 3. I soak in the springs and get a massage 4. Right near the springs like from Heaven above there is a picture of a giant spine. What a clever chiro to locate next to a caravan park! I must not be the first who has gone into the proverbial desert and taken peyote at the hand of Maui Caravans. I beg and he sees me in the AM before his first appointment. I know we are in New Zealand but he is the spitting image of the Australian Crocodile Dundee character. The waiting room is defined by a near life-sized photo of him sitting in the bush on a mule with the Dundee hat. He greets me with an utter lack of airs and I notice his tan leathery face, dirty blond hair and camo pants. The feature that most defines him is his I-got-a-secret expression- his face and eyes reflect he knows something you don't. He's shamanic in figuring out my point of serious sublixation in under a minute and reaches out and compresses it (sending me through the roof) with the Dundee voice…its that one theya. He's not one to need to fill the space with chatter and with few words he directs me to a mat where I sit on the floor. A couple of bean bags in hand he lowers me to the ground in a way that starts like a teenage make out move but ends with a violent sneak attack bending my ailing spine backwards over the bean bags and CRACK I am healed. Instant relief. Another sneak attack takes place on my neck and years of wrong are righted. $80. He could have charged me anything. I never even knew his name. I realize on the way back to the Maui just how much of a blur I was in for the last several days. Only when the pain is gone can I see how intense it was/know the weight of it. On our way out of town I ask the old coot at the service station if he knows his name as I would like to write about him and the good he did. He says while taking pause to chew a piece of grass that looked like it had a permanent home between his teeth, "chiropractor hasn't been in these parts for years now- lost him in an accident down by the old mine- he was riding his mule." Ok, I totally made that part up. But it was a surreal experience in Hanmer Springs. A days ride after leaving there we found the mattress and my new lease on life was secured. As for the hub, the only thing we can do is let him go back for 40 winks after the poo is emptied and we find a place to pull over with the sound of crashing waves and give him the simple joy of pancakes and eggs to tickle his senses back to consciousness before he assumes his seat at the helm of the ikea chariot. Our specifics to date? We landed in Christchurch and picked thru our belongings leaving half behind at the Maui Caravan center, ate dinner, provisioned, then spent the night at a top 10 with a giant bubble on the playground. We then went to Hanmer Springs and received healing by a movie character, soaked in hot springs and played on giant slides by day and enjoyed a blazing Southern Cross and Milky Way by night. From there we took the Lewis Pass west to Greymouth where we bought the mattress. With a better attitude…from 42.5167° S, 172.8167° E in New Zealand