Site Report: Blue Pools

Visits

• 2012-01-16: We left Twizel and drove over to Wanaka. Arriving late in Wanaka, we were unable to find a place to stay, but there wasn't really any good reason to linger there anyway, and we moved on toward the west coast. The D.O.C. office in Makarora reckoned that we might be able to find a blue duck in the upper reaches of the Blue River. We started on the hike, and the first ten minutes or so was your standard easy hike. From the junction, however, the trail became very steep. If any rain had fallen recently, we would have been climbing a waterfall. We followed a bunch of orange triangles to a spot where we had access to a raging river. It was perfect blue duck habitat, but alas we did not find any. The forest was full of other birds however, and the hike was good if a bit difficult. We did not see any other hikers on this trail during about six hours of walking and hanging out at the river.

Species Seen

Lifelists

• Australasia
• World

Trips

• New Zealand