Position 38 18.130S 176 28.750E

After Wai O Tapu we made our way back to Lake Taupo intending to stay the night in the car park again so that Paul could go out for a meal in town.  Unfortunately big cycling event and when we poled up and went into the only remaining parking spot we were told all the sites were reserved for the bikers.  So off we went out of town in search of a camp site.  On the way we stopped off at Huka Falls.  Apparently NZ best known falls, who writes this stuff?  They ain’t.  What they are is a very fast gush of water.  This is the Waikato river, NZs longest river, at the beginning of its journey to the sea south of aukland.  The water is flowing from Lake Taupo but has been constrained by some very hard geothermally altered rock.  It has carved a channel about 15m wide and 10m deep.  The water churns along this channel to the Huka Falls.  Up and downstream, respectively.

About 250,000 litres of water per second plunge 9 m over the Huka Falls.  Huka means foam and you can see why called that.  The flow is so fast that it stops the migration of native fish to Lake Taupo.  The lake has been seeded with trout but native fish like eels never reached Lake Taupo.

180 of the falls and downstream.

View from point above the falls.

We eventually found ourselves a small council campsite at Rerewhakaattu overlooking a small lake.  There has been a lot of rain recently and the lake was well risen.  Forgot to take a photo.