So this morning we woke up to brilliant sunshine and the wind seems to have dropped as well so after our ‘English breakfast’ – this B&B provide you with the ingredients you cook it yourself, we set off for our first walk of the day. The Te Waikoropupu valley walk – known locally as Pupu Valley has a walk that takes you round the Hydro Walkway which traces the old gold mining water race which is now used for power generation. It was a fantastic walk but there where a small problem in that we didn’t read the information board so we went the wrong way round, although this actually worked out as it meant that Chris didn’t get any warning about the fact he would have to walk alongside the watercourse which has a sheer drop but also it meant that we ended up walking down the river bed rather than up which would have been a whole lot easier! We stopped at a couple of lookouts on the way up then we got to the water race which was begun in 1901 and completed six months later in 1902 by 8 men! It runs for 3 kilometres across quite steep hillside creating a number of aqueducts. At the downstream end the water was piped downwards over a drop of 123 meters which gave the gold sluices enough pressure to work the river gravels of the valley floor. The walk was really spectacular and despite having to walk across a couple of fords we made it without incident! It took a couple of hours to complete so by the time we finished it was time for lunch, we decided to drive to the springs for lunch as that is only a short walk. Te Waikoropupu Springs are New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs and also the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere. We weren’t sure what to expect of them, but they were really rather enchanting. The walk provides a number of ‘platforms’ over the water so that you can see how clear it is, some are fed from further up the valley, but the spring at the lake is fed from within the lake which is actually quite strange to see it looks just like some of the geothermal activity we have seen but it is water. Our final stop of the day was Wainui Falls, but on the way there we went to the viewpoint on the end of the peninsula which was actually a bit disappointing as it isn’t very high and the tide was out. We had to walk across another fjord to get to the falls which for some reason I decided to try and jump across meaning I got a slightly damp leg! The walk up was really nice as you follow the river all the way and although it is fast flowing is it quite shallow and there are a lot of rapids on route, but the main spectacle is definitely the waterfalls, so much water is flowing over you can hear it booming as it crashes into the pool and the spray hits you even if you stand a distance away. We were the only people there so we stood watching the water crashing over the edge for a while the turned round and walked back to the car. By the time we got to the car it was 5pm so we set off back to the apartment for dinner and a relax, as it is still nice we went for a walk along the beach then sat on the deck having a drink before dinner all very civilised – what a great day.
