On to Hamilton

With the Easter Rally over, it was time to pack up and leave Mt Maunganui College, with some of our fellow campers getting away bright and early.  We left later in the morning, not in too much of a hurry as we had a reasonably short trip to Hamilton.  And as we hadn't traveled along this road before, we took SH29 over the Kaimai Ranges.

We stopped for lunch at Hora Hora Domain, a free camping area.  Such a pretty place, with many large shady trees in a park like setting and overlooking  Lake Karapiro.  An hour or so later, fed, watered and well rested, we continued on our journey again.

Lunch at Lake Karapiro

Our trip to Hamilton was to get a leak checked in the caravan.  Luckily we could stay at the Leisureline factory overnight, so the servicemen can take charge of our van at 7.00am the next morning.  We are very grateful that the service department could fit this job so quickly, especially as we are up on this part of the country this week.

Staying at the Leisureline factory overnight

What shall we have for dinner, we wondered, maybe Chinese?  Robin did a bit of googling, read some reviews, and we drove a few kms to Golden Dragon Restaurant.  The food was great, very reasonably priced, and we were offered the Senior Discount too.  You know it must be very good, when it is packed with local Chinese patrons.  I tried a couple of new things too, pork dumplings, and on the dessert table, tapioca coconut milk to pour over my pudding.  We were chatting to a couple of locals who were at the next table, who commented that although it wasn’t the flashiest restaurant in town, the food and prices more than make up for it.

Plenty of choices

Up bright and early the next morning we left our caravan with the servicemen and took ourselves off for breakfast.  This was certainly  delicious and beautifully presented too.  Salmon and avocado for her, and pancakes for him, followed by a delicious coffee.  Sure beats our usual cereal and toast!

Our delicious breakfasts

The caravan was ready for collection  mid morning so we hooked up and went on our, stopping off at Taupo Airport NZMCA Park for the next two nights.  This is always a busy place to stay, vans arrive and depart,  helicopters come and go, planes arrive and take off at the adjacent airport, and sky divers jump out of planes to land nearby. 

It had been a while since we had witnessed the Aratiatia Rapids change into a turbulent monster.  Several times each day, spill gates from a dam are opened at the top of the rapids and the narrow gorge fills with water surging past at up to 90,000 litres per second.  At Aratiatia the Waikato River falls naturally through 28 metres in the space of one kilometre. This natural drop has been harnessed for environmentally-sustainable hydroelectric power - headwaters are diverted through a tunnel to the power station.

We stood on the bridge by the power station, the siren sounded several times and the water flow changed.

:

From this

To this

On the other side of the bridge there was a lovely view of a  small rapid dotted with rocks covered in river weed.

 

As the water came rushing through, the rocks disappeared from view.

Once the spill gates were closed, and the water slowly dropped to normal, we heard voices from the main look out site, and witnessed a canoeist into the water!    And here he comes.

He paddled down under our bridge, climbed out of the river, pulling his boat behind him, then settled down to await his friends to collect him.  Oh dear, highly illegal and so dangerous.