Taupo - Day 9 & 10

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From Rotorua we headed south to Taupo. Our main reason for stoping in Taupo was to do the Tongorario crossing, an all day hike across an National Park that has beautiful volcanoes and lakes. Unfortunately, it was closed due to weather, bummer! To make up for it we did an all day hike to Huka Falls and we were so glad we got a chance to do it. On the way to our hike we checked out the Taupo bungy center. Don't worry Mom, I did not do it. : ) The bungy platform extended approximately 50 feet out over a gorge with the Waikato river below. Pretty spectacular setting for a bungy!

Our hike took us along the Waikato river. At the trail head was a "hot stream" where a hot spring drained into the river. There were a lot of people taking a dip and enjoying their weekend. The trail was well groomed as most are here in NZ. Huka Falls was beautiful. It is really more of a class five rapid with a 20 ft fall at the end. The water was this "ice blue" color looking as if it were straight from a glacier. We watched the jet boats bring their passengers up the the falls and spin 360's to their ooh's and ahh's and continued along the trail we took to the Ariatiata Dam. We passed a huge Geothermal power plant along the way which supplies 5% of NZ's power. Blah Blah the rest of the hike was really long and tiring... We ended the hike at a park that included a zip line that was big enough for "big people". Weeee!

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