Rotorua to Bulls via the Huka Falls and Mount Ruapehu

This morning dawned quite cloudy so I didn’t bother going to the beach again. After breakfast we headed south towards Lake Taupo, stopping at the Huka Falls. These are located on the Waikato river just to the north of the town of Taupo. The river runs through a narrow gorge then down the falls which the river cut through softer rock at the exit of the gorge. A bridge crosses the gorge allowing you to stand and watch the turquoise coloured water rush below.

Opposite the turn to the Huka Falls are the Craters of the Moon. This is another geothermal area. When we visited it wasn’t particularly active. There were just some steamy volcanic craters which didn’t take too long to walk round.

We drove through the town of Taupo and along SH1 that follows the south-eastern side of Lake Taupo. At Turangi we picked up SH47 and went around the western side of the Tongariro National Park. We drove up to the ski area on Mount Ruapehu. This mountain is an active volcano but it was dormant when we visited. There was much more snow around than normal for mid December which made the mountain much more scenic.

From Mount Ruapehu we headed south down SH4 to Wanganui. This road heads through some mountainous county. I was sitting in the back of the camper van and going round all the sharp corners I felt quite icky by the time the terrain levelled out as we got to Wanganui.

From there we continued south along SH3 to Bulls where we stayed the night at the Bridge Motor Home Park. This was the most basic place that I stayed in (they were nearly full so I had a “Backpacker’s room” but it was also the cheapest at just $18 for the night. Great value!