Jetski splash on the Waikato

Today was the day of the year when the descendants of my parents who are able to, gather together. My eldest sister is a great grandmother, so the range of ages was large, indeed. We gathered at the home of one of her daughters; in Morrinsville. A bit of a trek from the beach house, but fairly central as many of the family reside in or near Hamilton.

On the way there this morning I paused at Mercer. As I was leaving I saw the mighty Waikato River, running quite high after a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks. So I went to see if a photo of the bridge over the river here would be worthwhile, and spotted someone on a jetski tearing away downstream from the bridge; downstream is to the right.

Maybe he'll come back and zoom under the bridge, thought I. Well he did turn and head back up stream. Then almost straight out from where I was standing he did the jetski version of wheelies. I managed to catch this picture of the water being thrown away, as he was completing one loop.

The Waikato River runs from Lake Taupo north to nearly Auckland before entering the Tasman Sea at Port Waikato. It is New Zealand's longest river. Many dams have been built along its length to produce electricity. The name Waikato means flowing water.

Because of the controlled outlet from Taupo, and also control at each of the dams, flooding is confined to the lower regions, and is most commonly due to large inflows from its tributaries, such as the Waipa, which joins in at Ngaruawahia, site of the Turangawaewae marae.

Best seen large