Day 19 Huka Falls

Today I made my way over to the most visited natural attraction in NZ – Huka Falls.

There are lots of tour companies and coaches that run to Huka Falls and back, but I figured I’d try and save some money by doing the 5hr walk – every little counts when you’re a student attempting to travel the world on a shoe string!

 The beautiful crystal lake water

Thermal Streams you could jump in!

The walk was pretty easy going too, not particularly scenic but when you did get a view over the Waikato River it was beautiful!

I had to cut through the Taupo Bungy Jump, and it was pretty fun hearing people scream as they plummeted (although I think I still out-did them all with my scream when I jumped!)

You could definitely hear the falls before you saw them, and they were certainly impressive! Huka Falls (hukanui in the original Maori means ‘great body of spray’ in case you were interested) is where the longest river in New Zealand, the Waikato is funnelled through a narrow chasm before dropping off a 9m shelf. Over 300 tonnes of water per second!

It’s really cool to see the force of the water through such a narrow section, before becoming it’s usual calm self just a few metres down stream!

When I finally got back to town I picked up some fresh bread (a Soy and Quinoa Bun) and now I’m sat typing this up wondering what to get up to tomorrow (I’ve got a few ideas but nothing set in stone just yet). I can’t believe tomorrow is my last day before returning to Hamilton to pick up my suitcase… Time truly has flown!

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 This bird was drinking from the dog's bowl!

P.S the cards to open the door to the hostel room need to remagnetised daily (just a quirk of this particular room) but if one more person ‘forgets’ their card as soon as I sit down murder might just occur.

P.P.S so it’s pretty last minute, but I’ve managed to get such a good deal for my travel insurance for the next month and a half! By extending the date of the insurance so that I’m spending the majority of my time in the UK rather than the USA I’ve managed to save hundreds of dollars – yay for loopholes and reading the fine print.

P.P.S I had to buy another bottle of water today – I don’t know what I’m doing with my water bottles but I keep losing them! I lovely pink rollable one is lost to the far north and my replacement to the corromandel!