Wednesday 3rd March

Today we were treated to see Lake Taupo in all its splendour with the sun shining and the water a deep blue. In the morning we drove along by the river which flows from the lake and saw the Huka Falls, which have been formed where the river narrows and the turquoise foaming water swirls and races through the gap – this was massively more powerful than the previous 2 waterfalls we had seen. We watched 2 ‘jet boats’ loaded with (brave) tourists racing into the seething waters just downstream of the Waterfall. We then drove on to where the river is dammed and where every 4 hours the dam is opened to allow the water to flow through. This was another spectacular sight as the stream flowing down through the rocks suddenly becomes a huge flowing river as the dam is opened.
In the afternoon we drove to Napier, again across very varied terrain- some of which was smooth grassed hills and in other places pine forested and mountainous.
We ate in Napier where Liz had fish-terahiki (sea bream) which was much more to her liking. Napier is a town which suffered an earthquake in the 1930s and the buildings have been rebuilt in Art Nouveau, Deco style. It also has a large container port. We watched the last few over’s of the 50/50 match on TV between New Zealand and Australia, which was being played in Napier close to the restaurant where we ate. NZ just won in an exciting finish!