THE WORLD’S CLEAREST LAKE

Blue Lake

New Zealand’s Blue Lake has the clearest water in the world.

“Amazing”, “stunning”, “awesome”, “mind blowing”, are the usual superlatives visitors to Blue Lake use after gazing into its remarkable blue-violet water. “Ethereal” is another word used to describe it. Someone has written “no words” in the comments book in the nearby tramper’s hut. A Japanese couple recorded in the book, “This is a very spiritual place. We can feel it.” This remarkable little lake can be found in the 1020 square kilometres (393 sq miles) Nelson Lakes National Park in the upper South Island. Remarkably, it wasn’t until 2001 when Blue Lake was actually brought to the general public’s attention after a hydrologist wrote about the clear water. Even today less that 1000 people actually visit the lake each year. Helicopter rides over the lake have been recently introduced but this only reveals the size of the lake and I don’t imagine the clarity of the water can be observed as successfully as actually standing beside the body of water. read more