Wednesday, March 3

Wednesday, March 3

From our riverside campsite, we carried on upstream early on this damp morning. It was the first time I’d been along this upper stretch of the Waikato, and it was very beautiful. Our route took us past the Atiamuri and Ohakuri dams and power stations for about 35km before we swung away from the river and up into the hills on a back road. Over the next 35km we climbed for a long while before slowly dropping down the Waikite valley to the thermal pools and on down to Waiotapu where we were the sole lunchers at the Tavern.

After lunch we had a 40km run down highway 38 through some of the massive Kaingaroa plantation forest.