Who’s the clearest of them all?
What do Hawaii, the Maldives and a stream out the back of Putaruru have in common? They’re all someone’s ‘‘best ever’’.
Iwas partaking in the favourite Millennial pastime – scrolling through Instagram feeling broke, unfit and all-round inadequate – when I stumbled across yet another pristine blue (no doubt carefully edited) photo on the social media feed telling of the ‘‘clearest blue seas I’ve ever seen’’.
And – they reminded their followers – they’d seen a few.
Now, the social media star who posted this idyllic seaside snap does have an enviable travel log, but I still couldn’t help but eye-roll: Didn’t you say that three weeks ago? I’m sure you used those exact words for Hawaii, the Maldives and for a stream out the back of Putaruru?
Claiming the clearest waters, the deepest blues, the lushest rainforest or softest sands have become travel bragging cliches probably because they’re often subjective (yay, everybody wins) and largely unmeasured.
If you’re a little unsure if yours meets the aesthetic standards, I’m sure there’s a Photoshop editing tool to help you out.
But clear blue seas aren’t just for the awe-inducing GoPro footage: in these turbulent times what better way to forget your everyday stresses than by exploring the water’s serene depths as far as the naked eye will take you.
But when I want to know where to go to find these pristine piercing blue bodies of water, having so many voices claiming this cliched phrase pulls you in so many directions and can leave you short-changed when your results don’t mirror their glass-pane gorgeousness.
If you want to get technical (do any of us when on holiday?) water clarity – or turbidity – can be measured using some odd-looking contraptions called Secchi disks.
These black and white disks are lowered into a stretch of lake, ocean or river until they are no longer visible and that depth is recorded and known as the Secchi depth, after the method’s inventor Angelo Secchi.
I hadn’t heard of him either. It’s a rather simplistic method that basically shows the deeper sunlight can reach, the higher the water clarity.
Sadly, and just like many of you, I’m often without my Secchi disks when on the boat or sun lounger.
That means replying to any holiday humble-bragging about the ‘‘clearest sees I’ve ever seen’’ with a request for ‘‘Secchi depth or I don’t believe you’’ is not likely to get results (or keep friends).
Thankfully, for world-beating freshwater clarity you won’t have to travel far: it’s right here in New Zealand.
In 2011, Niwa researchers proved Blue Lake/Rotomairewhenua in Nelson Lakes National Park had water visibility exceeding 75 metres horizontally, far beyond what was then considered to be beyond optimal for divers and researchers.
For salt water, scientists from the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography in Marseille found that in a corner of the southeast Pacific Ocean, near Easter Island, UV rays could penetrate more than 100 metres below the surface.
And there lies the root of my annoyance – so isolated is this barren blue patch of water that it leaves the Instagram stars and travel bloggers to one-up each other closer to dry land. Email if you have a travel issue you’d like Josh Martin, a London-based travel journalist, to write about.