Dancing Light

A quiet day today, and one of the sunniest to date, I decided to take it easy and visit some very local sights. In my stubbornness to get moving after a late start, I chose the WRONG bike from the Barefoot Backpackers bicycle shed: this one was the only fully functional bike (by that I mean that the brakes worked AND the gears shifted on cue, instead of at random), however, it was a child's bike. This translated into excruciatingly painful thighs after only about 10 minutes of riding. To alleviate the pain I rode most of the way out of the saddle - the equivalent of using a variable speed Stairmaster for an hour straight. I earned my keep today.

The culmination of the trip was worth every drop of sweat: PuPu Springs is the clearest water source and river that I have ever seen. The Maori have names for the spirits of many things. One of them is Ko Hine Korako. She is the spirit of "springs and rivers of the Eastern seaboards" and said to be embodied by morning light dancing on the surface of moving waters. I met her today and am so pleased to know her now by name.

waters so clear that you can see 27 mitres down

The sound of bubbling underground springs