Wainui Falls, The Grove Scenic Reserve, Wharariki Beach & Te Waikoropupu Springs

As they were all within an hour or so’s drive from us at Pohara Beach we decided to try all of the activities today. None of which are singularly very long or strenuous, more just touristy things to see and experience. First up was the Wainui Falls, just a 20 minute drive from the campsite (*holiday park, these are certainly an upgrade on those in Canada). Signposted as an hour walk we got to it in about half that and it’s pretty. Worth it for being so close, but not if you were driving more than an hour to get there. We saw more Kiwi’esque birds which we think are called Wakas, or that’s what the chap in the Pohara reception said anyway (so can’t claim we’ve seen a Kiwi...yet).

Leaving here we shortly arrived at The Grove scenic reserve, which is a beautiful little park which looks like the scenery from Jurassic Park condensed into a half hour walk. It also had many many spiders webs across the massive rocks which Amelia really loved (not).

An hours drive after leaving The Grove, and a fun dirt road, we made it to Wharariki Beach. Apparently one of the best photography spots in the country, which I definitely disagree with. Sure it’s pretty great, and probably is amazing at sunset but it is really just a beach with some very large rocks in the sea. It was incredibly foggy so the view was slightly impaired but it was therefore incredibly atmospheric. We also saw seal pups, which was pretty cute. One of them was basically doing yoga in a rock pool (odd) and the other was playing in the surf at the seas edge (super cute). We ate lunch seated on a log at the edge of the beach. Thoroughly worth going but not as epic a photo spot as we had imagined. We saw the farewell spit from the road but didn’t get out as the fog concealed much of it, and didn’t want to get stranded out there by the incoming tide (looking on a map of the Northern part of the South Island it’s the Kiwi beak like shape at Golden Bay). 

Heading back the way we came (intentionally) we got to the Te Waikoropupu Springs. A cold water spring that contains some of the clearest water in the world, apparently only beaten by an arctic spring. It is clearly beautiful (despite the rain disturbing the water so much you couldn’t really see through it) and carefully kept as such by numerous signs and barriers keeping inquisitive tourists away from the water itself. It’s only about a half hour round trip walk here and we ended up finishing at about 5, pretty tired and very much ready for this evenings barbecue.