Back to the North Island, Lake Taupo

We got to Picton and booked our ferry back to the North Island for that night. It was supposed to leave at 10:30pm but didn't end up leaving until 2am for one reason or another. The sea was particularly rough, so I didn't manage to sleep at all. We arrived in Wellington at 6am, and drove to the nearest layby to catch up on some more sleep, before heading into town again. Both Izzy and I really enjoyed Wellington last time we were here and we knew there was still plenty for us to see.

Our flight leaves Auckland on the 25th, so we decided to head north to spend the next week in Lake Taupo, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, Bay of Islands and Auckland. After a long evening of driving around 200 miles we reached Lake Taupo. Our first night in New Zealand was spent here, although we didn't stop to see anything as we bee-lined straight for the South Island.

Yesterday we visited Huka Falls. It's a waterfall on the Waikato River that runs off of the lake. Normally the river is 100 metres wide, but at the point of the Huka Falls, the water squeezes through a 15 metre gap. At the end of the gorge where the water falls, it is gushing through at 220,000 litres per second.