Sunday 28th January – Huka Falls and a long drive south

After checking out we looked ahead at the long journey south we had today.  We needed to make sure that we didn’t miss any amazing points of interest on the way.

The Waiotopu Tavern

We paid a quick visit to the historic Waiotopu Tavern, known for providing good food and accommodation in the heart of the famous geothermal region.  But we were too early and it was closed! But I did stop at the honey shop next door and invest in some nectar:

Our next stop was Huka Falls.  I had read that there was a short walk from a parking spot up the hill and this would save us fighting over spaces in the main car park. It was another example of when I had made Simon do a walk for absolutely no reason and, as it turned out, found that there were plenty of camper spaces in the car park when we got there!  But, the bonus was that we discovered the best viewpoint for the falls was on our walk down, so the extra effort was more than worth it!

Best viewpoint for the falls

The falls are stunning but the most impressive thing about them is the sheer volume of water that forges its way along the narrow canyon and down the falls – 200,000 litres every second! It is no surprise then, that the Waikato river system has eight hydroelectric stations and supplies about 15% of New Zealand’s power. When the Huka Falls jetboat came steaming along we both experienced a bout of envy, but we have other ideas for our jetboating antics….

The narrow canyon the water is forced along before roaring over the falls...

 

Huka falls jet boat

Another view of the falls from higher up

We followed the Waikato river as it ran southwards until we reached the jaw-dropping Lake Taupo, the water-filled crater of a massive volcano and the largest lake in New Zealand. 

We were in luck again when we heard the roar of jet engines coming from the water and discovered that there was a festival of speed on that day involving jet skis and super-powered jet speedboats:

Even more of a pleasant surprise was the parking space we managed to find backing onto the water’s edge for us to stop at and have lunch in:

We could have happily stayed all day, but we needed to make up some more ground heading south so we continued, skirting around the easterly edge of the huge lake:

So the lake is pretty amazing, but so is that cloud!

Researching on our Travellers’ Autobahn app (yes, it also covers NZ) we managed to find a lovely laid back campsite in the middle of nowhere, a tiny town called Eketahuna.  We chose a spot in a spacious field and at some point during the evening the owner wandered around and collected a small amount of cash from us for the night.

There’d been a party in the field on the Saturday night and there remained glowing embers of what must have been a massive bonfire at one stage.  The owner was happy for us to reignite the fire using the spare wood that was still lying about.  This was music to Simon’s ears.  Most of Australia has total fire bans so we hadn’t had a bonfire since…. Probably the states!  With the help of some child labour from a Christchurch family staying next to us, we had a roaring bonfire and a lovely sociable evening.