Taupo, Part 2.......

After we'd marvelled at Craters of the Moon, we zipped over to the lookout to be wowed by the majesty of Huka Falls......the most visited natural attraction in NZ.....on the Waikato River ......which drains Lake Taupo.....which itself is the largest freshwater lake in all of Australasia. The Waikato River is normally 100m wide, but at the falls is squeezed through a 20 metre wide gorge....a hard volcanic ledge.......and over a 20m drop.....forming a visual fest of powerful falls and rapids.......every second up to 220,000 litres of water gushes through the gorge and shoots out over the cliff face.......it bursts out of its rapids over 8 metres beyond into a deep circular basin to create a beautiful blue/green pool....the name Huka is the Maori word for 'foam'........and it really does look like frothy foam......

Huka Falls, NZ

Huka Falls, NZ

Huka Falls......Looking Upstream

Such an amazing natural wonder!

Next we stopped by the Honey Hive......a great little place where you can view bees going about their bee business in a glass hive, taste a variety of different honeys, purchase any manner of products made with honey and/or bee products, and watch an informative little video which explains almost everything there is to know about the humble honey bee.....it was fascinating .....and even the Angels were engrossed watching the video.

After that we popped down the road to the Volcanic Activity Centre.......a hands-on interactive educational centre that makes learning about the earths volcanic forces easy and fun.....we learnt about the Taupo Volcanic Zone which stretches from the magnificent volcanoes of the Tongariro National Park, through Rotorua....an active geothermal area....to New Zealand’s most active volcano White Island.....this area is considered one of the most active geothermal and volcanic areas in the world today and covers an area of 19,635km.....it was another fascinating.....and important.....stop for the Angels where they learnt about a hugely important facet of New Zealand's past and present composition and formation.......

Volcanic Activity Centre

And our last stop in the Taupo area was to see where steam is harvested from geothermal fluid to generate electricity.......

Wairakei Geothermal Power Generation

This is an incredible and absolutely amazing way of generating electricity......this "power station" is hidden in a secluded, uninhabited valley.....and uses only the earth's natural resources......

To try to get an idea of just how much heat.....energy.....is sitting just below and/or bubbling up from the earth's centre all around this area......this seemingly innocent white flow of mist.....

Geothermal Stream

is actually a flowing stream of boiling water......

Geothermal Stream

It is water like this that is processed through all the miles of piping here.....to harvest the steam.....to generate electricity.....quite simply amazing!!!

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