A vision of Middle Earth: New Zealand's Blue Spring at Te Waihou

A friend recently asked for advice on places to visit in Australia and New Zealand. Our family had the blessing of visiting both countries a couple of years ago, and I returned briefly the following year. I had plenty of happy memories to share.

I don't write about our travels while we're traveling, mainly because we're too busy sightseeing, and when things quiet down at night, I'm occupied with planning the next day's activities. So travel writing has to happen retrospectively. I hope to do more of that this year.

When I gave my family a choice of a second place to visit for a few days, on top of our week together in Brisbane, Australia, they were unanimous in selecting New Zealand, preferring it to the tropics and Great Barrier Reef and to the "red centre" of Australia -- Uluru and Alice Springs. The kids are all fans of Tolkien and leapt at the chance to see locations used in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, particularly Hobbiton Movie Set, which was built as a temporary set for the Lord of the Rings trilogy then rebuilt permanently for the Hobbit trilogy to serve as a tourist attraction. (More about Hobbiton another time.)

We flew from Brisbane to Auckland, arriving after midnight (there's a three-hour time difference), then drove the rental (a Hyundai iMax "people mover") to the Waiuku Lodge Motel, the only place we could find that could accommodate the five of us in one room. Next day we had Thanksgiving day lunch at the Kentish Hotel, a pub with a claim to having the longest continuous liquor license in New Zealand. It was a two-hour drive to get to our 4 pm tour at Hobbiton, so we had to miss the black sands of nearby Kariotahi Beach.

After our Hobbiton tour, the family scoured the gift shop, and I sat at a picnic table, overlooking emerald green sheep pastures, using the wifi to search for the night's accommodations. They bought a book with details of the filming locations for the Peter Jackson movies. I paged through it looking for scenic spots we might want to visit on our way south to Wellington. There was a clear stream and spring not far away and would only add 20 minutes driving time; we could reach it before dusk. It wasn't used in the movies, but it looked like it belonged in The Shire.

Waihou is the Maori name of the river that was christened the Thames by British explorer Captain James Cook. The Te Waihou Walkway is a three-mile hiking track along the river near the village of Putaruru, and it passes the Blue Spring, which produces over 9,000 gallons of water per minute and supplies 60% of the bottled water produced in New Zealand.

The Waihou Stream is totally spring fed. Water from the Mamaku Plateau takes anywhere from 50-100 years to reach the Blue Spring. Water flows from the spring at a rate of 42 cubic metres per minute (9,240 gallons per minute). The water temperature of the Blue Spring is a constant 11 degrees celsius [52 degrees Fahrenheit] throughout the year.

The reason for the blue colour (and high visual clarity) of the Waihou River and its spring source is the high optical purity of the water. Pure water is intrinsically blue in hue because it absorbs red light leaving only blue and (some) green light to be transmitted to the observer's eye. Pure natural waters are blue to blue-green in colour because they lack light absorbing constituents and particles. Both particles and light-absorbing matter are efficiently removed during the long settlement time of spring water while in aquifers.

The easiest pedestrian access was from the car park on Leslie Road. From there it's about a half-mile walk over fairly level ground to the Blue Spring.

Can alcohol be consumed on Te Waihou?
Alcohol consumption is discouraged, but can't currently be prohibited. In order to prohibit alcohol we would need to include Te Waihou in our Public Places Bylaw as a prohibited alcohol consumption area; and then of course there is the question of how to regulate, monitor and enforce.

What arrangement does Council have with the water bottlers? Council has Water Supply Agreements with each of the bottlers, which allows each of the bottles to take a certain volume of water from Councils supply each day.

What do the water bottlers pay?
They pay $1.05 per m3 as per the fees and charges.

Why can't Council make the water bottlers pay more?
Council treats all industry the same that use water from Council's supply, whether the water is used for wood treatment, concrete making or making cups of coffee.

Can Council stop the water bottlers from taking water from the Blue Spring?
Bottlers do not take water from the Blue Spring. Council takes water from the Blue Spring under consent Council supplies half of Putāruru with water from this source. The bottlers are only three properties that are supplied from this source.

From Hobbiton, it's about a 30 minute drive to the Leslie Road car park for Te Waihou Walkway, which is the closest access point to the Blue Spring -- about a half-mile. There are no services there. The entire walkway along the river, from Leslie Road to Whites Road, is three miles one-way. If you're on your way from Auckland to Rotorua, or from Auckland to Wellington, visiting Blue Spring adds only about 15 minutes driving time to the trip.

On the way from Hobbiton or Auckland you'll pass through Tirau, the "Corrugated Capital of the World," and see the town's tourist information office and museum -- corrugated iron buildings shaped and painted to look like a sheep, a ram, and a sheepdog, with a corrugated iron sculpture of a shepherd in front of the church next door to the northwest. There are other clever corrugated sculptures decorating the main street, plus cafes, antique shops, galleries, a pub, a motel, and a castle containing New Zealand's largest toy, doll, and train collection.