Jet boat on Waikato river - Taupo

The weather forecast suggested today was going to be a wash out, with heavy rain, high winds and thunderstorms. So we had researched some wet weather activities.
Activity number one - speeding through the rapids on Waikato river. We headed to the information centre for the best deal we had found and got booked on the 10am jet boat trip. We quickly drove to the centre and got kitted out in our waterproofs and life jackets. Turned out we had the boat all to ourselves, which was great! He said we seemed like we had the common sense to hold on so he was happy for Louis to take his GoPro and capture some videos of our 35 minutes of high speed river fun.
The guy stopped a few times to give some facts about the river but Louis was more interested in the facts about the boat - 100k to buy the boat, we reached speeds of 90kph and it typically burns 2l a min of fuel 😳.
After an epic way to really wake up in the morning we headed to Lava glass and watched some glass mushrooms being produced and heard a little about the process.
We then went to take a look at Huka falls, an impressive and powerful flow of water heading down the river.
Then to avoid a down pour we popped into Huka Honey hive and tried a selection of local honey and alcohol - very tasty.
We decided then to go and watch the Aratiatia Dam open it’s flood gates, which it does 4 times a day. We got to see the river fill up in minutes, pretty cool And back in the van before the next thunderstorm too - great timing.
While there was a pretty heavy downpour we drove out to the thermal spa - a wild hot spring alongside the river. Unfortunately, the recent downpours meant the spring was a little cooler than normal so we just dipped our feet.
Then the only way to end a rainy day, a trip to an old school cinema to watch Frozen 2.
We even squeezed in some Sunday night admin, working out the dump stations and getting the van in order before heading back to the lake to set up camp for the night.Read more