Tourists take a load off at Kerosene Creek, a natural hotspring on the Wai-o-Tapu tributary that ultimately runs into the Waikato.
Hinemoa's Needle marks the end of a massive escarpment of Te Horohoroinga o nga ringa o Kahumatamomoe—where Tutanekai washed his hands after burying bones.
Allan Bryant guides his log truck up Waipa State Mill Road to the Whakarewarewa weighbridge to check through a load of pine from a farm wood lot near the river.
The water draining from Lake Taupō is crystal clear at Reids Park Farm, the out-point for daring drift divers following the current downstream. Miss this out-point and the next stop is Huka Falls.
At Orakei-Korako, the immense Taupō Volcanic Zone brushes the surface, superheating water to form the largest geyser field in New Zealand. Kurapai Geyser is erupting on the hill behind the terraces.
The upper reaches of the Waikato writhe like a serpent through the fertile farmland of Broadlands Forest.
It's Craig Caldwell's last day in 'the office' before his retirement as production technician of Maraetai Power Station.
Atiamuri Power Station was the third of eight hydroelectric power stations to take advantage of the massive vertical potential of the Waikato River.
Searing up the green highway at 90 kilometres per hour, punters on the New Zealand River Jet get a whistle-stop tour of the upper Waikato.
Ohakuri local Nik Gibson has won the national wakeboarding champs four times, and travelled to the Worlds in Korea, Doha, Italy and Australia, first time at age 14.
Mike Holmes pulls shortfin eels from a fyke net, under the watchful eye of his hound Jack. A decent day returns 150 kilograms—six bags—to make up his 20-tonne quota for the year.
Endemic species coexist with invasives in the highly modified ecology of Lake Ohakuri on the Waikato River. Shortfin eels writhe around the camera, while introduced rudd—the 'possums of the waterways'—circle at a safe distance.
Students from Reporoa College recreate history, paddling a double-hulled waka hourua—a cultural programme run by Aotearoa Waka Experiences—through the infamous Tutukau Gorge, a section of the Waikato River two kilometres south of Orakei-Korako.
New Zealand's longest river narrows to a 15-metre cataract of whitewater at Te Waiheke o Huka, where some 220,000 litres of water per second tumbles over six-metre drop.
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