Waipawa

About once a week I drive south 30 minutes to the little town of Waipawa to work in our satellite clinic. This is more of the oh-so-typical farm land of NZ.

Some Fall Color

We recently took a few days to go over to the central part of the north island to Lake Taupo and the touristy little town of Taupo. It's a 2 hour drive with some very typical, stunning New Zealand scenery along the way.

Autumn but still very green!

More scenery along the road to Lake Taupo and the town of Taupo.

Autumn in New Zealand

While in Taupo we visited one of their many beautiful parks. Even though the entire time we were there it was gray and rainy, we were able to get out and enjoy the area. The fall colors have been so vivid ~ especially when compared to our somewhat anemic southwest autumn colors.

Taupo Park

The autumn colors were amazing.

Waikto River

After our walk through the park we came to the Huka Falls/Waikato River walkway. A 45-minute walk along the river to the falls. We saw no more than 5 people and enjoyed the sounds of the river and birds.

Waikato River

The river walk was lovely even though it was a very gray and rainy day.

Waikato River

We thought this little pool (on the left) was so clear and beautiful. The foliage is so varied.

Huka Falls

Here the Waikato River narrows from 100 metres wide and 4 metres deep to 15 metres wide and 10 metres deep to form Huka Falls, a narrow gorge of several hundred metres long. As you might imagine, it is a torrent of water that passes through this narrow area.

Huka Falls

This is the other end of Huka Falls. The entire length of the falls (narrowed area) is only about a block long and the falls in this picutre are about 30 feet high. A very interesting geographical entity.

Outlying Taupo Farmland

This is some of the beautiful country outside Taupo. The little white dots are sheep ~ what else?