Legends of taniwha protecting the healing waters of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest cold water springs, tales of hardship in the backbreaking search for gold, and the story of how the prospectors’ leftovers are used to generate power. All can be found in the Waikoropupu Valley in Golden Bay.........
Pupu Springs c.1889-1893, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection, 182242/3Click on image to enlarge
Maori regard Waikoropupu Springs, near Takaka, Golden Bay, as taonga and waahi tapu. Legends tell of Huriawa, the springs’ taniwha and how their pure water is the spiritual and physical source of life.1
The freshwater springs are the largest cold water springs in the Southern Hemisphere2 and second only to the Antarctica’s Weddell Sea in clarity. Every second between 10,000 and 14,0003 litres of water are released from the springs, whose depth has never been accurately determined.
An early viewing platform, The Nelson Provincial Museum, Copy Collection, C3160Click on image to enlarge
The Waikoropupu Springs Scenic Reserve is managed by the Department of Conservation4 and is Golden Bay’s most visited attraction. A walkway meanders through regenerating forest, and a platform on the edge of the springs allows visitors to look through a glass-bottomed viewer at the diverse plant and invertebrate life that thrives in the constant 11.7°C water.5
Serene and beautiful, the springs and surrounding area were turned upside down by European and Chinese prospectors in the late 1850s, when gold was discovered in the nearby Anatoki River. By the early 1860s the native lowland bush and trees had been burned and cleared for alluvial prospecting. Water races were constructed to carry water from the spring's creeks for ground sluicing. Boulders were moved and washed for traces of gold and then stacked into walls. Hopes were high but returns were not, and within a few years most prospectors were gone.6
Pupu Springs viewing platform - Karen StadeClick to enlarge
There is little left to show of those who searched for gold at Waikoropupu, but visitors to the springs can still see the tail races, dug to move water for sluicing, and the remains of the rock walls.
Pupu Springs - Karen StadeClick to enlarge
At the nearby Pupu Hydro Walkway they can see the 3km long water race used in a more ambitious gold mining project in the early 1900s. The Takaka Sluicing Company was set up in 1901 to intensively mine for gold at the commonly referred to area, "the Bubu". A 3.7km gravity fed water race that was part canal and part aqueduct, and certainly an engineering feat, was finished above Campbell’s Creek in 1902. The company closed in 1910 when mining became uneconomical.7
A new use for the old goldmining operation was found in 1929 when the Golden Bay Electric Power Board opened a hydro power station and used the old water race to generate power for the Takaka area. The smallest power station linked to the national grid closed in 1981, when it was decided repairs were too expensive. The Pupu Hydro Society took it over, however, and restored the old power station, restarting power generation in 1988.8
Pupu Springs walkway - Photo - Lindsay VaughanClick to enlarge
In 1981 a public walkway was constructed from the powerhouse to the water race. It then follows the race to a lookout and a weir. In the same year the station and walkway were recognised as an historic site by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The Pupu Hydro Society purchased the station from Tasman Energy in 1990 and annually supplies .8 gig of power to the national grid.9
2008