Lake Taupo and Huka Falls

On the way back to Auckland, Andy and I knew we had to stop by the Lake Taupo region.  This area has a ton of activities and is full of goodies.

Lake Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand and the largest freshwater lake in Australasia (about the size of Singapore).

It is also just northeast of Mt. Doom, I mean Mt. Ngauruhoe.  But I'll get to that later...

We drove to Spa Park, which has a free swimming hole and natural hot pools, as well as a walkway to Huka Falls, our ultimate goal.

hot pool

From the park, we walked an hour along the Waikare River (New Zealand's longest river) near its start from Lake Taupo to Huka Falls.  The river itself continues on for 425 kilometers and ends in the sea south of Auckland.

Huka Falls is one of the most visited natural attractions in New Zealand.  About 220,000 liters of water plunge over the edge every second (enough to fill five Olympic swimming pools per minute).

On the walk back, we decided to take a different route, which ended up taking much longer than expected... Needless to say, by the time we returned to Spa Park, we were quite exhausted and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the hot springs there.

I was going to combine this post with our next venture: Mt. Doom (I mean Mt. Ngauruhoe).  But Andy and I decided that, if Hobbiton got its own post, Mt. Doom should get one too.  So check back soon... Mt. Doom will be posted in the next day or two!