NZ 31: The Walk to the Blue Pool

Wanaka Region, New Zealand (Jun 2, 2008)

After waking up in our cozy chalet at the Makarora Wilderness Resort, and devoured a filling breakfast (just in case we had to skip again lunch), we went back on the road directed to Te Anau, through the Wanaka Lake region. Our first stop wasn’t very far, as we left the car a few miles after Makarora and went for a walk in the forest towards the Blue Pools. I mentioned in other posts the richness of New Zealand forests, and how they were the perfect set for filming the forests of Middle Earth. This one was not exception.


The path to the blue pools is a short walk among huge trees covered with mosses, to a point that the bark is almost invisible. It is like crossing a tunnel, with the green light filtering between the leaves high in the canopy. It is not a silent forest: birds with voices I have never heard before accompanied us along the whole way. Maybe some mysterious Sindarin songs. The path first descends to the level of the valley (we left the car in one of the well indicated parking lots along the road), but not so low as the river: as the photo on the left shows, the crossing is done on a suspension bridge of wood and steel ropes. Not quite as impressive as the rope bridges in the Andes or Himalaya, but still impressive enough that Mayli didn’t want to leave both steel handrails even for the time of the photo!


The milky-azure color of the water of the Makarora river is revealing of its origin: melted ice from one of the many glaciers in the area. Just after the bridge, the valley becomes wider and the forest more sparse, almost as if we were leaving the Bruinen to reach the gates of Rivendell. The beautiful pool in the photo on the right looks almost unreal, with the water so transparent that is impossible to gauge its depth. A few large trouts were swimming in this blue crystal, maybe a few centimeters from the surface, maybe several feet below.

Back through the bridge, back through the forest, back on the car, directed south toward the Wanaka Lake and down to Fiordland.