It’s not impossible if you don’t have a car, it’s just a really long walk. But we did it, so I’m sure you could too. We did over 27,000 steps that day, about 11 miles. And 363 zone minutes, but who’s counting? We took the Riverside Walk from downtown Taupo to the thermal park. It’s longer than following the road but we thought it would be more scenic. It was scenic, and a little narrow and hard to find in places.
Around the thermal park there is a bungee jumping place on the river, a bike park, and disc golf. Follow the signs to nearby hot pools you can get in and the trail to the falls. Restrooms and drinking water are available.
Once past that point the trail is wider and much easier to follow. It follows the river and there is lots of shade along the way. It’s about 3k to the falls from the park, with only a few short steep sections.
Once you reach Huka Falls you’ll have a lot more company. There’s a parking lot just the other side of the falls, so driving there is easy if you have a car. We didn’t, and couldn’t find a bus that went there.
Huka Falls is not very tall, but the volume of turquoise water rushing through a narrow gorge and cascading out the other side is colorful and loud. We haven’t seen anything else like it. There are walkways along both sides of the river.
There’s also the option of taking a jetboat or more traditional boat to below the falls.
Once you’ve had your fill of the falls just retrace your steps. From the thermal park we followed the roads back to town rather than retracing the riverside trail. It was shorter, we were tired, and we had stops to make on the way back.
