Lake Taupo: Aratiatia rapids, Huka Falls & Lake Rotopounamu

Bake off last night was excellent. Patisserie week, love it. Anyway today was slightly less exciting (in terms of nearly drowning, a slight exaggeration) than yesterday however still largely revolved around water. First up was the Aratiatia Rapids. These are a series of rapids lying behind a dam which opens 4 times a day and, if you get there at the right time, the dam opens and the rapids fill for 15 minutes then die down again. Very interesting. We managed to get to every viewpoint along the way, mostly because I was a massive keeno and ran between them. 

Next up was New Zealand’s most visited natural site, Huka Falls. We walked over there from the car park at the Thermal Spa Park, which is a very pretty walk. The falls themselves are very impressive. 200 000 litres of water flow though there a second. That’s a fair bit. That would fill an Olympic swimming pool in 11 seconds. We had lunch back in the Thermal Spa Park, a cheesy crisp sandwich for Amelia as we’re running low on supplies. 

Next up was a drive past Lake Taupo to Lake Rotopounamu, an unremarkable hike which was mostly through forest. Nothing really to report from here apart from the stunning viewpoint looking across Lake Taupo.

Tonight we’re staying in Ohakune which is a shortish (or no so short as we found out, the previous campsite was probably quicker, my fault entirely) drive to the end of the Tongariro Alpine crossing which is an 8 hour hike we’re doing tomorrow. It’s meant to be pretty epic so definitely looking forward to that. Although the main event of tomorrow is obviously the England World Cup final match. We’ve planned to watch it in a bar a short walk away and even going out for dinner. Fancy. Very exciting day ahead of us.