Huka Falls

We arrived at the Huka Falls area around lunch time and explored a bit. After looking at a couple of choices, we settled on the Huka Jet company. But first, I'll show you some pictures of the area. The river constricts through a narrow rocky pass, creating the falls on the outlet side. Although the falls aren't all that tall, they are extremely powerful and turn the water a crystal blue.

Huka Falls from above

The main river can be seen in the backgrond, with the falls in the center.

The water rushes into the chanel and bounces around

It gets rougher and rougher before plummeting out the end of the shute

Here's a little move showing what it's like....

And the exit pool.

Here's a picture of the falls from the Huka Jet. What is a Huka Jet? It's a little boat that these crazy Kiwis can drive in just a few inches of water. They can spin the boat around in 360's, which is really fun. They drive super close to things and try to scare the wits out of you...it's really a blast. The wildlife seem totally used to these things and don't even move when the boat zooms down the river. Pretty strange. We checked out the lower river, then came up to the falls where the guide described the properties of the water. After telling us that the water is super aerated and things can't float in it due to lack of bouyancy, he proceeded to rev up the jet engines and run us right in front of the falls.

It was great fun!

Well, we're on our way to the south island in earnest now. We keep hearing from everyone we meet how fabulous it is there...that the scenery is really dramatic and picturesque. We're really excited, so we decided to drive to the bottom of Lake Taupo and try to get to Wellington tomorrow, and catch the 1:00 ferry to the south island the next day....