Wednesday 3 February

Today we leave this lovely town, but there is still more to see. On Mo’s recommendations we had a morning planned to visit the Aratiatia Rapids and Huka Falls, both on the mighty Waikato River, the largest river system in New Zealand.

The Aratiatia Rapids have been formed by the damming of the Waikato River. Although there are many dams on this river this part of the river is quite narrow. Water is released at regular intervals into the gorge below the dam. Sirens sound to alert people to the water release. It is now a very popular visitor attraction.

The best viewpoint is a ten minute walk from the dam wall and car park. It is an amazing sight watching the water pour into the gorge creating a river where before there were a series of lakes joined in sequence down river by small falls. The release lasts about 20 minutes and although the rise of the water was very slow the fall once the release has stopped is very quick.

As we left there was a tour boat leaving to go upstream to visit the Huka Falls, where we were headed.

We did not leave the rapids area straight away so by the time we reached the falls and took a look around and sat for a while, we saw the boat arriving. Good timing! A bonus was the jet boat tour coming along too.

These falls are quite astonishing. Water flowing from Lake Taupo travels through the hard volcanic rock creating narrow gorges. The falls themselves are not very high but the force of the water gushing through the narrow gorge creates an explosion of foam into the wider river below. 200,000 litres of water per second pour over the falls with astonishing force.

It was very lucky to be able to see both the river cruise and jet boat arrive and power their way as close as is safe to the surge of water.

Our last morning in Taupo complete we continued our journey to Hamilton in the centre of the island. Although we could have driven straight to Auckland, we planned this short overnight stop to enable us to do some things in Auckland the following morning.

We visited Hamilton Gardens which are probably best visited in spring or autumn, as they were not at their best. Interesting nonetheless.