Rapid relief

At night the mud pools and geyser next door are flood lit so I took a time exposure shot before going to bed.

I left Rotorua about 10 to 10 this morning and had travelled less than 2km before the first road works. Fortunately there were only a couple and travel was speedy the rest of the way to Taupo. In fact, once I'd got onto the mostly straight and flat roads , it was easy to let the speed creep up. After a bit of travel through the hills there was a sudden change to a valley filled with thermal steam which seem to blanket a large area. (or maybe it was fog!). Later I passed through a pine forest. This time I checked out the attractions on the way into town so I wouldn't need to back track.

I saw the Aratiatia Dam, but missed the water release by a few minutes. I did however catch one of the jet boats speeding up and doing a 180 to brake. This rather spoilt the serenity as seen in the photo taken just before it arrived.

Water is released and flows through the rapids below. There is a rapids jet boat ride but the next one was at 2pm and $85. The one I saw above the damn goes the the falls and is $95. I gave that a miss as well.

I also looked at the prawn farm (boring - didn't go in but took some shots from the riverside restuarant) and the the Hakura falls. An amazing amount of water shoots down a small channel in the rocks. The colour of the churned, aerated water is quite different. It would fill an Olympic size pool in 1/2 second. It is hard to belive this is the start of the Wakato, the serene river that passes through Hamilton.

I had lunch in Taupo and then decide to drive around the lake rather than take the more direct route to the Waitamo caves. This took me clockwise around it heading south along the west side through Tauramanui, before turning East and heading towards Te Kuiti.

The lake itself is huge, many times the size of Lake Rotorua which itself was quite impressive. The drive south passed through Pine plantations then a road between the lake and the cliff. Once I headed east the road climbed the hills again and I stopped at the lookout to see the lake and surrounding area spread out before me. Surprisingly it was nearly 2 hours before the first roadworks so I made good time.

Eventually I reached the main road heading back north to Hamilton and it was about 4-30 when I came to Te Kuiti – “The shearing capital of the world”. Tauramanui was the trout fishing capital of the world. I wonder if the world knows about these 2 places? Once heading north the country side was more grazing land than forest and the sheep were again grazing on steeply sloping hillsides.

I decide to stay the night and look at the caves in the morning rather than try and see them today. I booked into a motel near the main road and then drove into the village where I found this internet café /bar. I will eat here once I finished.