26 January 2017 - NZMCA Port Tarakohe, Golden Bay

Canaan Downs this morning

It was only 7 degrees inside when I was woken by car doors slamming as budget campers crawled out of their accommodation toward the dubious toilets and the water tap. We had done a rough count last night and decided there were about thirty vans or cars in. It’s a long way in to Harwoods Hole to find that there are already ten tents set up before you.

It was about 8.20am when we left the camp, hoping to pre-empt those coming into Canaan Downs, however we had barely left the reserve when we encountered three camper vehicles, all small, making their way in. I suspect they had been warned about the road and thought they would try to get in before the overnighters made their way out. Fortunately this was the only traffic, and we had an otherwise uneventful trip out to the main road on the 11 kilometres of gravel. It is worth mentioning here the prevalence of gravel roads here in New Zealand; recently a fellow traveller told us that 38% of New Zealand’s roads were still gravel. A current car advertisement on the television states one third of New Zealand’s roads were gravel, so even if the truth lies somewhere between, that is a lot of gravel to travel.

Road hazard in the Takaka Valley

The road down the western escarpment of Takaka Hill is very steep with switchbacks and hairpin bends, but the surface is excellent, sealed of course and the road wide. It was a slow descent; there were plenty of spots for us to pull to the side to let traffic through. It was not until we were nearly at Upper Takaka that we came upon a flock of sheep being driven down the road, accompanied by three shepherds each with his own pack of working dogs. Alas we got stuck behind a ute whose driver had no idea how to navigate a flock of sheep on the road and we remained behind the whole caboodle until they were turned into yards some distance along the road. 

The lovely Pupu Springs

Arriving at Takaka, we dumped, filled with water and bought the newspaper and fresh bread at the excellent Fresh Choice supermarket, then headed further west to visit the Pupu Springs, or more correctly, the Waikoropupu Springs. Again this was a repeat visit; however the intervening decade had brought upgrades to the entrance information area and a longer one kilometre walkway to showcase the pristine waters of the rivers and springs through lovely native bush.

Part of the walking track follows the line of the old water race that delivered water from a dam at Fish Gully to gold workings near the Main Spring, back in the late 1850s. It is hard to imagine such mining industry here in this beautiful spot, but then it also goes to show that nature is capable of healing man’s mess so well. Today there would be no hope in hell of obtaining resource consent for such activity here.

Dancing Sands below the surface

Following the brief gold mining stint here, the land around the springs was claimed by the Crown, then sold into private ownership for farming, later changing hands several times until it was sold in 1912 to the Takaka Sluicing Company’s manager, Charles Campbell. His daughter, Hilda, subsequently inherited the land and recognising the international importance of the springs, sold nine acres back to the Crown on condition that the springs were preserved and managed for the New Zealand public.

Sometime in the early 1900s a viewing platform was built, setting an elevated style of looking down into the main spring that remained until 1984. In that year a lower jetty-style platform was built with a periscopic box to assist underwater viewing. That was still in place when we last visited. The box was considered intrusive and finally removed in 2012. Today one has to be satisfied by standing on narrow platforms along the edge of one side of the spring, but even from here there are lovely views into and across the beautifully clear waters that spring up from the bowels of the earth.

Looking down toward Takaka from the Pupu Hydro walkway

Diving was a drawcard for many during the second half of the 1900s, divers coming from all over the world to experience the unique aquatic environment but since 2007, the waters of the reserve have been closed to the public. I do remember once seeing a film taken by divers of these springs; it was quite spectacular, but these days would be seen as having offended the sacredness of the spring.

Along with the greater cultural respectful changes has come the fixing of the name; previously the Pupu Springs Scenic Reserve, it was changed in 2010 to Te Waikoropupu Springs Scenic Reserve. I still think of them as the Pupu Springs.

Walking Campbell's Water Race

These springs are amongst the very clearest waters of the world, and the quality of the water has remained stable for the past twenty two years. In 1993 NIWA scientists found visibility to be 63 metres, not quite the 83 metres for distilled water. The only currently known freshwater to be optically pure is Blue Lake in the Nelson Lakes National Park, and even more superior, the ocean waters in the South Pacific Gyre near Easter Island.

Sometimes upgrades can spoil something that was already good; this time the powers that be have done a great job and we were certainly pleased we had bothered to revisit. I was delighted to actually see the dancing sands in the spring of that name; the white sands prance about with the pressure of the upflow.

We went on up the Pupu Valley road to the Pupu Hydro Walkway, boasting to be “one of the most beautiful walkways in New Zealand, a place where nature, history, community, energy and conservation exist.” The walkway is a one hour fifty minute circuit that passes through mature beech and rimu forest of the Kahurangi National Park, alongside a historic gold miners water-race, across aqueducts that were a masterpiece of engineering for their time, through areas of regenerating forest to the fully restored and operational Pupu Hydro Powerhouse, although we did that all in reverse just to be contrary.

The water race that diverts water from Campbell’s Creek is nearly two kilometres long and was re-commissioned in 1929 (from the gold mining days) to serve a power station built by the Golden Bay Electric Power Board. The penstock and power house was rebuilt in 1980 by the Pupu Hydro Society to generate electricity for the national grid.

I remembered the long ascent up Jim’s Track, although it was much more attractive than when we were last here. The forest has grown taller, and the viewpoints and attractions are well signposted. The water race was just as I remembered it although today it was bereft of high flowing water. This was soon explained when we came upon three men of senior years all working away with machinery and hand tools patching the race. These members of the Pupu Hydro Society were taking advantage of the few days the power station had closed down for remedial work. They were delightful men, happy to chat away and would have kept us entertained all day had we been willing to hang about. They did warn us that the zig-zag track which descends to the car park was not in good order but nothing could have prepared us for the dreadful state we found it. Water had been left to carve out its own way, exposing roots and leaving the walker to pick their way up the steep hill, allowing for no distraction. We were so very glad we had chosen to walk the track the wrong way; I would not have enjoyed walking up that wreck of a track.

Returning to the camper, we made our way back out to the highway, and headed back into Takaka. There we parked and walked about, absorbing the quaint character of the little township and the art and crafts on offer. It is a town to delight the hippy set, and it never ceases to surprise us how many hippies there are left in the world. On such a gorgeous summer day, the town bustled and bubbled, but we wondered about the slow days of the winter when the backpackers and whizzbang vanners had all gone home. We bought ice-creams and peered into shop windows and read the histories of the old buildings as we wandered along. Such a lovely day today; summer really has arrived at last.

View from our camp across Golden Bay

We decided to come on to Pohara and stay at the Boat Club where we had stayed all those years ago, and were absolutely delighted to find the NZMCA has actually got its own park over spot here. It is right beside the road, but then so is the road right beside the sea, and the little safe boat harbour. With such views all for $6, how can one complain about the boats being towed past?