Day 11 & 12 Rotorua area (Huka Falls, Aratiatia Dam, Lake Taupo, etc.)

We remained staying in Rotorua on these days, but the weather was damp with showers and we did an excursion on day 11 to a couple of sites and on day 12 a visit to the spa.   

To start the day we took a walk around the Blue Lake, a rain forest kinda walking trail around a very picturesque lake just outside Rotorua.  Then we went to the now closed, due to earthquake risk, Rotorua Museum, just to see the site. It looks very impressive from the outside.

The excursions included Aritiatia Dam and Huka Falls.   We also visited the Craters of the Moon geothermal site and went to Lake Taupo for a short visit.

At the Aratiatia Dam they have dam releases of water into the downstream rapids at several specific times of the day, so we got to the site just in time to see this happen.  

Huka Falls is a waterfalls and gorge with serious rapids, for jet boating and white water rafting.

Here are some pics:

Rotorua Museum (closed)

Locals playing crocket

Aratiatia Dam rapids

Aratiatia Dam

Huka Falls

Craters of the Moon geothermal park:

There was an Ironman event going on at Lake Taupo when we visited:

We visited the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua for a spa day.  The spa overlooks Lake Rotorua and has multiple outdoor pools at various temperatures and with naturally occurring local mineral water: