Exploring New Zealand:
Tarawera Falls, Tarawera River, Kaituna River, Rotorua

On our second day we head out from Rotorua to hike in the Tarawera Forest, encountering various branches of the Tarawera River as it disappears and reappears from the ground, even popping out of the side of a cliff at Tarawera Falls. In the late afternoon, part of the group goes rafting and sledging on the Kaituna River Okere Falls including an exciting drop over the world's "highest" commerically rafted fall (Tutea Falls) at (more-or-less) seven meters. A few of us have to pass on the rafting as we're due to go to a traditional Maori hangi in Rotorua. (We were able to stop by the falls and watch some other groups go down.)

(Click on any thumbnail image below to view a medium-sized enlargement.)

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