Riwaka Resurgence

Today I picked Kiwilizzie up and we headed to Motueka just for a visit - and because there is a great shoe shop there. We both managed to talk ourselves into new shoes that we didn't need, but heck who can turn down a half price pair of purple kubo's (or in her case a green pair)?

Once we'd proved that we're the ultimate consumers, we headed up the Riwaka valley to the source of the river. I hadn't been there in more than 35 years and Kiwilizzie never had, so although I sold her on the idea, I really couldn't remember much about it other than that it's where the Riwaka river bubbles up from underground.

It is a 10 minute walk from the road end, and by the time we got there we were saturated because it was fair hosing it down. Anyway, it was well worth it - just a pity that it was such lousy weather. The river was running really high and further down stream it was a dirty brown like all the rivers in the area are at the moment, but where it comes from underground it is still crystal clear and beautiful.

These falls are a two minute walk back down the track so I couldn't resist stopping to take their photo either. They are really running too full and angry for long exposure shots but I took them anyway! Will definitely go back in slightly drier weather and see how it all looks then.

We also called in to Kaiteriteri for lunch - great steak sandwich - will definitely be returning there too.

On the way home I took it into my head to go through Tasman and Brightwater in case there were any kingfishers about for Liz to photograph. We did find one but he didn't like us and took off. However, we were excited to find a kotuku as well. He took off too, but not before we managed a fair few photos of him. Well worth checking out Kiwilizzie's blip of him.

My photo of him is not as good as hers but I'm still pretty stoked with it so I've put it here in my Blipfolio.

To top off a great day we stopped in at the Flat Rock Cafe at Kohatu on the way home and had a great coffee and cake.