Blue Spring Putaruru

The Blue Spring on the Te Waihou River is fed by water that fell as rain on the Mamaku Plateau and then spent somewhere in the order of a hundred years filtering down through volcanic rock before surfacing here. That filtration is why it looks the way it does - visibility of around eighty metres, a constant eleven degrees year round, and a colour that reads as turquoise over the weed beds. It is not a swimming hole: entering the water is prohibited, both because the spring supplies a large share of the country's bottled water and because the aquatic plants that make it look like that are easily wrecked. The Te Waihou Walkway follows the river to it, about 4.7 kilometres one way from the Whites Road end or a much shorter 1.2 kilometres from Leslie Road, which is why the Leslie Road car park fills first. The longer walk through farmland and river bends is the better one.

What you actually see

• The spring itself - turquoise water with roughly 80-metre visibility.
• The weed beds - the plants moving in the constant current.
• The Te Waihou Walkway - river-side track from either car park.
• The constant temperature - eleven degrees, all year.

When to go

Any season - the spring does not change. Bright overhead sun brings out the colour. Weekday mornings avoid the coach groups at the short end.

Honest expectations

Swimming, wading and entering the water are prohibited. From Leslie Road it is a twenty-minute stroll and can be crowded; the long approach is the walk worth doing. No shade on the farmland sections.

Nearby

Putaruru is the nearest town; Matamata and the Hobbiton set are north.