Rainy Days in Taupo & Rotorua

The middle of the North Island is chalk full of different activities to keep your day busy. Anything from river rafting, bungee jumping, thermal hot pools, to hiking and skydiving. The winter weather returned for Mac & I and we were somewhat stuck inside for our days in Taupo and Rotorua. The miserable weather meant that we had to pass on the thrill-seeking adventures (for now…). But fortunately the rain cleared a bit and we were able to enjoy some of the lesser known activities! Here are some of the things we got up to during our rainy days in Taupo & Rotorua.

Taupo, NZ

Aratiatia Rapids

The Aratiatia Rapids are along the Waikato River (which actually originates in Taupo and flows all the way to Auckland). The rapids are formed when the dam gates are opened – releasing an incredible amount of water & drastically changing the landscape. The gates are released 4x daily in the summer, and 3x daily in the winter. It’s best to arrive a few minutes before the release times – this allows you to get to one of the 3 lookout points.

The gates opened just as it started raining (typical), but the effect of the newly formed rapids was still quite dramatic. It’s amazing to compare the before/after pictures!

If you’re a fan of The Hobbit series, you may recognize these rapids from the scene in The Desolation of Smaug. As I have not seen the movie, I can’t elaborate more, but I’m told it’s a great scene…

The Aratiatia Dam is on SH5 – just a 10-15 minute drive from Taupo. It can also be accessed by a walkway from Huka Falls/Spa Thermal Park in town (~2 hours one way).

Lava Glass

Just down the road from the rapids (towards Taupo) is a small gallery/cafe called Lava Glass. Featured here are the works of Lynden Over and Chris Jones, world-renowned & local glass blowers. Their pieces are displayed in the gallery (no photos are allowed, but everything was absolutely gorgeous!). For just $5 I was able to sit in on Chris creating a piece. Watching him work was fascinating and to see a beautiful blue vase created from scratch was incredible!

Huka Falls

Only 5 minutes out of town is Huka Falls. The falls are on the Waikato river which actually goes all the way to Auckland! While the Waikato river is normally wide, it narrows abruptly in Taupo creating an incredible amount of force which results in the 11m tall waterfall. The force is so great that this part of the Waikato river actually supplies 8 hydroelectric stations and makes up almost 15% of New Zealand’s power!

Almost 200,000L of water cross the waterfall face every second – this amount of water is enough to fill 5 Olympic-sized swimming pools every minute! The sun miraculously appeared when I was at the falls which really highlighted the turquoise blue waters.

Huka Falls can be easily reached from Taupo by car (look for the brown signs), or by walking from Spa Thermal Park.

Rotorua, NZ

Redwoods Forest

I absolutely loved the Redwoods Forest when I first visited it with my family. With its close proximity to town there was no way I was going to pass up another opportunity to visit! We hiked the ‘Blue Walkway’ which was so tranquil & beautiful (and also a little muddy!!). If I lived in Rotorua I’d definitely frequent the Redwoods as often as I could!

Rainbow Mountain

On SH5 just outside of Rotorua is Rainbow Mountain. Here, there are a few things to see including a crater lake and a summit hike. The clouds were starting to roll in as we left the car park, but we decided it was worth the risk! Rainbow Mountain gets its name because of the red ochre soil. I had never seen soil like this before!

En route to the summit is Crater Lake. This blue lake had quite the picturesque backdrop of red-faced cliffs and steam!

The 3km hike to the summit took about 1 hour. Unfortunately the clouds had rolled in full force and we had zero views at the top. But the hike was still lovely anyways. The info panels near the car park had pictures from the summit which were incredible. So despite our lack of good weather, I’d still recommend this hike!

Waiotapu Mud Pools

Just a minute down the road from Rainbow Mountain is the Waiotapu Boardwalk which borders a giant mud pool! The rain had started by this point in our day, so the pictures I have from here aren’t the best. But I can assure that the mud pool was really neat! The area is about 45m across with temperatures ranging from 60C to 100C!

The Mud Pool is free to access, but if you’d like to see more of the geothermal features, you can continue onwards to Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland which is quite a popular attraction (entrance fee is ~$30 I believe).

Rainy days in Taupo & Rotorua might not be as exciting as weather-perfect days, but there’s no reason they can’t be as memorable! There are even more things to do than what I’ve listed here – just check out the local iSite! Or, you can wait for a clear sunny day to do some more thrill-seeking adventures – like skydiving!! (Stay tuned for that post!!!)