Whakamaru Dam

What to do on a rainy afternoon at Mangakino?  Perhaps we would check out yet another dam on this hydro system.  We have seen several so far on this trip, and previously didn’t really know much about them at all.  The four of us took a short drive to Whakamaru Dam - the Maori name means “to give shelter to, or safeguard”.  This dam was commissioned in 1956 and is one of several on the Waikato River.

Road on top of Whakamaru Dam on the Waikato River

The heavens opened up but we slogged through the heavy rain down through a steep set of steps to get to the lookout.  This sort of rainfall is not at all good for our cameras, and we had a bit of trouble keeping them dry.

Whakamaru Dam and Powerhouse (2nd Picture through the rain)

By this stage water was dripping off of parkas and running down onto our trousers.  The four of us were sorry sights indeed.  On our way out of the lookout car park Robin spotted something strange by the fence line.  We stopped the car to have a look and this is what we saw.  It was a deer skin hanging over the fence with the head still attached.  Looks like someone has been hunting in the forest, but leaving this skin over the fence seems quite a strange thing to do

Deer skin on fence

The rain had finally stopped by the time we returned to our camp site.  A group of campers was standing out on the grass and pointing away in the distance – wonder what was catching their interest?  There was a strange looking rainbow over  part of the pine forest plantations that abound in this area.  But instead of the rainbow being the usual half round shape it seemed to be hovering over the top of the trees.  Very strange, and as we watched and snapped a few photos, it faded from view.