Ohakune and on the road

From Wellington we headed north with only a week and a half to explore the North Island. We had originally planned to go to Wanganui and then to Mt Teranaki, but it was really cloudy and too long a drive for something that we might not be able to see over the mist, so headed in a different direction instead. Along the way we saw three volcanic mountains, although we basically drove almost all the way round them and only got a decent picture when we got to Lake Taupo and we could see them in the distance.
We stopped for lunch at Lake Taupo and then went for a walk to Huka Falls. This waterfall was so incredibly powerful and it was amazing to see it gushing through the valley and eventually splashing into a big pool. The colour of the water is really pretty, it's like a light aquamarine and this is due to something in the rocks... I read about this somewhere, but can't remember the facts.
After lunch we carried on to a hydro electric power plant where we saw the river while the water was contained and took a picture of the rock pool looking all calm and empty and half an hour later when they had released the water. It wasn't as powerful as the one we'd seen earlier, but still really interesting and fun to watch as the river filled up and all the rapids started flowing.
We spent the night in Ohakune and this little town really didn't have much there, but we'd seen loads that day so were happy to relax in the evening.
We've been surprised by how little Crowded House we've heard in NZ, it might be partly because in the South Island our radio was out of signal a lot of the time, but still we've only heard them 3 times. We presumed there'd be a crowded house FM or something.
Loads of photos to enjoy with this post.