Well exactly half way through our holiday...we needed this week to,relax a bit and stay in one place more than 2 nights! Today we got up early and drove out of town to catch a river boat on Wypero River which will take us to Huka Falls. We got there early so we could see the dam open which opens 3 times a day...went for a bush trek to get a good view of it...amazing! The dam let's water out at 65,000 litres per second and remains open 15 minutes each time. They ring a bell before they let water out..warning at 8 minutes, 6 minutes and 2 minutes! We then sat back and relaxed enjoying our river cruise. This river is the only river flowing out of lake Taupo and it goes through centre of Hamilton and through Auckland too...largest river in NZ! There are are 42 Rivers flowing into Lake Taupo though! There are 9 power stations on this river producing 15% of north islands electricity. Lots of black swans, bird life and trout. Lake Taupo is famous for its trout fishing...largest wild sport trout fishing in the world! mostly rainbow trout which were brought in from California in 1898..there are a few brown trout around which were introduced in 1887 but primarily rainbow...you need a licence and are only allowed to bring home 3 trout per day per person...they must be 40 cm long or longer....no bait or spear gun fishing allowed...just trolling, spin, and fly fishing allowed...hence term sport trout fishing! We passed a major electricity generating station...from our bedroom which is miles away you could see the steam pouring out...we thought it was a volcano at first! It is unique as the underground thermal steam pools are used to turn the generators which produce electricity as opposed to generating the steam by man...it is by the river so they can use the river water to cool down. This station produces 7 percent of north islands electricity and it smells like sulphur! The waterfall was only flowing at half strength but still beautiful...it flows at 300,000 litres per second...fills an Olympic size swimming pool in one second! The sister company of ShotOver in Queenstown is on the river with their jet boats. We learned that jet boats were created in New Zealand by a farmer who wanted to reduce his mustering time...and did so...went from 3 days to 1 day...they only draw 15 cm at speed and can turn in their own length....the rest is history! I would say the farmer does not need to muster sheep any more! We then went to the glass blowing factory which had nothing on Europe I am afraid...but we had a nice lunch there! We then went to the earthquake discovery centre...nowhere in New Zealand is safe...there are plates moving under it everywhere...and so many cities have been damaged time and time again...scary place! We went in a simulator which simulated the Christchurch quake at 6.4 on the rector scale for 40 seconds! It was scary! Could not believe it! How any building withstands that shaking is beyond me....very surreal! We left having been volcanoesd and earthquakes out....somewhat like gorged out in West Australia and castles out in Europe! Enough is enough! We came back home via a few lookouts, did a bit of shopping and I got help with my computer so I could use two devices at once...then went for a swim and relaxed for the evening! Nothing on tv over here...tried cards but got so beaten by Fred I gave up! He is on a roll at the moment!