Te Waikoropupu Springs

Te Waikoropupu discharges something in the order of fourteen thousand litres a second, the largest cold-water spring in the southern hemisphere, and the water has been measured at visibility of about sixty-three metres - close to the theoretical limit for pure water and among the clearest ever recorded outside Antarctic ice. It surfaces after a long journey through the marble and limestone of the Takaka valley, including water that has travelled beneath the mountains from the Arthur Marble Aquifer. The springs are wahi tapu to Manawhenua ki Mohua, and since 2008 no one enters the water at all - no swimming, no diving, no touching, not even a hand. Signage explains the rahui and it is respected. What you get instead is a fifteen-minute boardwalk loop with viewing platforms and an underwater viewing mirror over the main vents, where the sand is visibly boiling upward. It is a short stop and an unusual one.

What you actually see

• The main vents - sand visibly lifting where the water surfaces.
• The clarity - visibility around sixty-three metres.
• The boardwalk loop - fifteen minutes with viewing platforms.
• The rahui - the reason nobody is in the water.

When to go

Any season. Bright overhead light shows the clarity best. It is a short stop, easily combined with anything else in Golden Bay.

Honest expectations

No contact with the water is permitted - no swimming, no diving, not a finger. This is a wahi tapu under a rahui and it is taken seriously. The loop is short; do not plan a half day around it.

Nearby

Takaka is five minutes away; Wharariki Beach and Farewell Spit are north-west.