Aratiatia dam

Today was the day we wanted to do the Tongariro Crossing. Due to bad weather conditions on the mountain this got cancelled.
For Isabelle this was unfortunate as her timetable did not allow for too many extra days and she had to move on.
For me it just meant that I extended my stay for two days.

Instead of going up a mountain we tramped along the Waikato river past Huka falls to the Aratiatia dam. Here they use the power of this fast flowing river to generate electicity.
The tramp is only 7 km one way and a little bit hilly. 😉

A few times a day they do open the floodgates and let the water flow through the old bed. Which is quite impressive if I may say so.
First you have a few boulders more than 2m tall and ten minutes later they are submerged in a raging river.