On the way to Rotorua, Amandine advised us to stop at Hangarua springs.

After a few days in busy touristic places of the North Island, stopping for this walk feels wonderful. It’s a short easy 1 hour walk not specially hidden but somehow forgotten by the tourists who come to this town for the volcanic wonders or for the Mauri culture.

You park at the golf course’s parking, you say hi to a bunch of ducks crossing the road and here you go, you’re on the track. You walk in a small forest of huge trees, not far from a small translucent river.

It’s refreshing after the hard sun of the Bay of Plenty.

And in the end, you see… a spring : a 15 meters deep hole where water comes to the river. No picture can really represent what it feels to see that spring. More than the shape or the colors, it’s the quiet speed flow that’s impressive. No bubbles, no jet, just small waves created above the hole and running through the river to the lake.

You could stay hours meditating in front of this spring.

This is the very beginning of this river.

…

But then, the mosquitoes awake you from your meditation. Time to go.

So you slowly walk back between those huge trees known as Californian Sequoias. Less impressive than there big brothers from Yosemite, they still know how to make you feel small.