Aratiatia Rapids | New Zealand

Last updated on 28 September 2020

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I mentioned at the end the Huka Falls post that there’s a place further down the river called Aratiatia Rapids. On our way back to Auckland from Napier, we stopped off just in time to see them release the water. At designated times during the day they let the water stream from the dam at the top, and run over all the rocks into the natural river bed. It’s an amazing sight, seeing all the water suddenly rush down the ravine. Though I’d seen it several times before, it was still nifty to see it. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, then you may have seen some snaps of this cool place. If not, here’s what the dam looks like:

Here’s a bit of a sequence, so you can see how the water fills up the river bed…

“At Aratiatia, the Waikato River falls 28 metres in the space of one kilometre and the surging rapids have been harnessed for environmentally sustainable hydroelectric power.” – from the website. 

I know you can’t really tell that they water is rushing from these pictures, but trust me, it was pretty impressive. Add it to your list of things to do in NZ.