A day out on the river

When you have a beautiful sunny Sunday, a houseful of 'bored' kids, parents about to return to work, and a few floating devices, what do you do??

You get a group of friends and go floating down the Waikato River!!

 

Last summer a group of our friends did this and we were keen to have a go ourselves so finally got around to arranging it. Airbeds, lilos, inner tubes and ski biscuits were all employed to get us from the control gates in the Taupo township to the campgrounds just above the Huka Falls.

 

We set off just before 12 noon and floated serenely ...yeah right...there were grown men and kids involved (oops, one and the same, aren't they??!!) so it was with a lot of NOISE we set off! The water was crystal clear and just cold enough. It was probably the hottest day to date with temperatures up to 28-29oC so the river was the perfect place to be.

We floated past houses built with magnificent views of, and access to, the river. We saw wildlife (ducks and ducklings, trout and swans) and other river users too-some in kayaks and some like us, using whatever they had to float!

 

We stopped below the place where they do the Taupo Bungy and watched about 6 people jump! NO-I am NOT keen to do that!!! Otherwise, it was just us and the river-beautiful.
 

Finally we arrived at a picnic spot where we had a late lunch with huge appetites fuelled by all our activity and fresh air! What a great way to spend a few hours and something we will definitely be doing again.