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Tramping New Zealand |
DAY 3 - Blue Pools Walk
Morning begins at about nine o'clock after a restful night. Although we are sharing a bath with another couple, nothing bothered me at all. On the way out of town for our first "real" hike, Dave and I stop at the Big Fig, where "slow food is served fast". It has a decent Internet connection; so finally I am able to upload the photographs from our first day of travel. I'm sure that we will come here again.
Today we will drive northward to the Blue Pools, a popular attraction just inside the Mount Aspiring National Park border.
Roadside attraction
The Blue Pools are fairly close to the highway. Our route will take us a bit farther, down beside the Young River.
Our trail heads southward
Getting started
Suspension footbridges always are fun
Another bridge is over there
At the Blue Pools
Nice
Leaving the tourists behind here, Dave and I and plunge into the forest.
Mushrooms and toadstools are everywhere
A spring in the rock
First trail obstacle
Clover are everywhere, also
Arachnid art
Entering a long meadow
As high as an elephant's eye
A red-barked something
We hear rushing water off to the right. Shortly ahead, at another suspension bridge, we find a little use trail leading upstream, to my favorite spot of the day:
Every creek around here has blue pools
This is why I go hiking
Limit one at a time on this one
It's not that the cables couldn't hold more people; it's the extra swaying around that can cause structural problems.
Beautiful. Self-heal, I believe
In fact, many of the flower varieties I have seen here thus far look just like the ones at home. That definitely was not the case either in Patagonia or Italy.
A new style of stile!
That design makes much more sense than the old-fashioned
set of stairs on each side of a fence, it being cheaper and easier
to maintain.
Young River
Beside the trail is a trap set for a sloat, a non-native
importation that predictably has morphed from some sort of
hoped-for solution into the problem itself.
There is no bait in the trap
A big overhanging boulder is sheltering, of all things, a discarded pair of boots. Ugh.
We seem to have reached the end of our trail. In order to continue, it would be necessary to ford the rushing river.
End of the line
It is time to take a break and munch some gorp. Settling down on a sandy soft spot, our reverie is immediately thwarted by a swarm of sand flies, the dreaded nuisance throughout New Zealand. Although we have some repellent wipes at hand, in disgust we simply pack up and start back.
Sand-fly bites can be painful, and they leave welts that hang around longer than those from mosquito bites. On the plus side, those vermin don't seem to be a problem as long as one keeps moving; so that's what we'll do.
Nifty patterns
Birdie won't take the bait
The sorrel are most colorful
Young River again
We haven't seen any of these guys nbsp; ⇔
Back at Blue Pools, some twenty-somethings are diving into the
water, both for a photo-op and to see whether their bathing
suits will stay on!
Hers nearly did not
Last look at Blue Pools
§: This was a nice walk that would have been
nicer had we been able to stop for lunch.
As I type this journal, I am sitting in the main gathering area of our hostel. I find it most enjoyable just doing my thing while all the relative youngsters chat, play pool, and scurry in and out of the community kitchen preparing meals.
Wait! Chef David has just emerged from said kitchen with two plates, each containing half of a meat pie and a pile of broccoli. Washing the dishes will be my responsibility.
