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<\/a>Even though the walk was just outside of town, we could easily have been far out in the country as there were very few buildings along the way. The river was unlike any we’ve seen before. The water was crystal clear with little sediment obscuring the rocky river bed. This must be due to the fact that the river is fed by Lake Taupo where all the sediments have had time to settle out coupled with a fast flow scouring the river bed clean.<\/p>\nSam was cameraman again and again we have lots of good photos for the blog. Most you’ll see in the slideshow at the end. We saw few people on this walk which made it very pleasant.<\/p>\n The trail we were on took us just under an hour We ate our lunch here before returning the way we had come.<\/p>\n We had thought about visiting a nearby volcanic area but figured we did not have enough time to do it justice before our next planned adventure.<\/p>\n Something we’d said we’d do with the boys before we left on this trip was to do a tandem skydive. We’d never got round to it but here in Taupo they have a very professional outfit. And the weather was great. And they have slots available. It was hard to resist the opportunity. All day, the boys (including me) had been quite excited. Not so Helen. She’d had a bad dream about it the night before and had been deliberating all day. Finally she felt she had to pass on the trip and did not even feel comfortable coming along to watch.<\/p>\n<\/a>Right at the point where our trail met the river there was a fast flowing and very hot spring where folks were bathing. This would have been a better option than the paid for private baths us boys took a few days earlier. But we didn’t know then.<\/p>\n<\/a> to follow and reach Huka Falls. Here the fast flowing river churned through a narrow cut in the rocks finally spilling out into the next section of the river. On the other side of the river was a car park and hence the area was quite crowded with tourists.<\/p>\n