Te Waihou Blue Springs
Thanks to @julia.garnier23 for several of the photos.
Te Waihou Blue Springs has become one of the most popular short walks in the Waikato, largely thanks to Instagram. The track follows a section of the Waihou River through farmland. Despite this, the water remains extremely pure and crystal clear.
You can take a short option from the car park on Leslie Road, off State Highway 28, northeast of Putaruru. This only takes about 10 minutes to walk to the Waihou River. Continue to follow the river, and you will end up at State Highway 28 (4.7 km, 90 minutes one way). The walking is mostly flat and always easy.
The river is very striking, clear, and with intense blues and greens from river plants. The spring-fed water starts its journey on the Mamaku Plateau and takes 50 to 100 years to reach the river. It is so pure that it supplies around 60% of New Zealand’s bottled water, and you will see a small pumping station along the track. The native bird life is also rich, although there is limited native forest and scrub.
Inevitably, photos tend to focus on the river, but there are other points of interest, such as Rose Milligan’s “Dust If You Must.” This is part of a memorial to Linda Pearce that can be seen above the river, under redwood trees towards the Leslie Road end and is reprinted below.
Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?
