Walk to the Blue Spring: one of NZ's best kept secrets

I bet there won't be many of you out there who haven't tasted the crystal clear water from The Blue Spring at some time in your life. Have you ever bought a bottle of Pump water? Then you definitely will have.

I'm not sure what I was expecting from our walk to the Blue Spring but it exceeded all expectations. It's a very easy 4.7km walk each way, well that's easy when you're not 4 and a quarter I suppose. Despite insisting on being out front the whole way there, and taking on all comers who tried to sneak in front of him, poor master Mylo got a bit tired on the return journey and had to have a few stints riding on people's shoulders to see him through which gave us (mostly Daddy) a good upper body workout.

The walk ambles along beside the river through all manner of scenery - from open farmland to thick native bush.

But it's the way the water changes along the walk that is really quite astonishing. From a nondescript river that meanders on its way one minute, to a shallow crystal clear almost stationary pool, to a rapid fast-flowing frothing sea of white all in the space of a few twists and turns of the walkway. 

I have truly never seen water as clear as this in all my days and it really does have to be seen to be believed.

My dad was made up that we (all 7 of us) went on this walk with him. He'd found details about the walk by chance a couple of months back and was hoping that we'd all be able to manage it together. We weren't sure how the boys would go on a nearly 10km walk but they surprised us all with their stamina.

We even spotted several rainbow trout along the way just hanging out in the shallows - I can think of worse places to live if I were a trout!

Once you reach the spring (and thank the Lord it timed in with lunchtime for our hungry little walkers) there's a great explanation of the spring and how it comes about. 

And there, on the far side of the river is the spring itself. Almost too blue to be believed. It is incredible and almost looks as if someone has poured a load of blue food colouring into it.

It's also hard to believe the rate at which the spring flows could fill a 25m swimming pool in 12 minutes - it seems to flow ever so gently and you can't even hear the water flowing when you're standing right in front of it. 

 

It was one of those out of the box days where everyone was simply happy to have been together and to have shared this experience. And on days like this when we find wonder and beauty in completely unexpected places, we wonder why you'd ever choose to live anywhere but right here in this beautiful country of ours.

Here's a short clip I took of some of the more picturesque spots on the walk.


For more information on the walk and how to get there, click here.