We left Wellington and drove to Taupo, about an hour south of Rotorua. Most people skip Taupo completely, and many people aren't huge fans of Rotorua. I actually loved both. These areas are the "adrenaline capital" of the North Island and well-known for geothermal activity. Taupo is less commercialized than Rotorua.

The first stop in Taupo was Taupo Bungy. See next post. After that we went to Huka Falls, the highest volume waterfall in New Zealand. It's not high but an incredibly narrow and deep canyon. It's very powerful and the water is crystal clear and blue. This is why I decided to stop in Taupo, I'm a sucker for waterfalls.

The next day we stopped at Aratiatia Rapids, the site of a new dam that people are unhappy about. They open the dam several times a day so you can see what the rapids were like before it was built. We then went to Orakei Korako Geyserland where we saw naturally boiling water, geysers, boiling mud, a huge cave, and more. Very cool.

The drive from Taupo to Rotorua was great. The entire city of Rotorua smells like sulfur because of all the thermal activity surrounding it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. On Thursday we took it easy and spent a few hours in Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park.

Great dinner on Thursday night at Fat Dog Cafe. Off to Waitomo and then Auckland tomorrow!