After a busy morning taking care of race prep stuff, Jeremy and I needed a quiet afternoon to rest our legs. They were surprisingly tired from our Waitomo adventure and we didn't want to blow our race. Chris had mentioned how neat the Aratiatia Rapids were, so we decided to check them out. Every two hours water from the dam is quickly released down river. It has something to do with a compromise made with the local Maori tribe. We hiked up to the lookout points and waited for the action to start. Even without the cascading water it was a really scenic view and we didn't mind waiting. We could tell from the wet rock how high the water was expected to go and it seemed like it was going to be pretty high.
This pic is for Kelton. It reminded us of Maui's fish hook that he likes so much.
Here is a time-lapse I took of the water release. The whole thing lasted about 10-15 min.
That was a lot of water! We chose the lower lookout point so we could hear the rushing water. It was so powerful. When filming The Hobbit, this was the river they used when filming the hobbits' escape in the wine barrels. Just a little trivia for you.
The pool at the beginning. It was really pretty empty, here it's still pretty full.
After we watched the water recede for a few minutes we drove down the road a short way to the Huka Falls. It was another neat viewpoint with very little effort on our part. It wasn't tall, but very powerful. The water shoots really far down when it hits the main pool which means there is a lot of air in that water and it gives the falls the pretty light blue color. It is definitely not a river you want to mess with or try to conquer in a kayak.
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