Test on Waikato River, Feb 2012

The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand. In the North Island, it runs for 425 kilometres from the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and emptying intoLake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake. It drains Taupo at the lake’s northeastern edge, creates the Huka Falls, and then flows northwest, through the Waikato Plains. It empties into the Tasman Seasouth of Auckland, at Port Waikato. It gives its name to the Waikato region that surrounds the Waikato Plains. The present course of the river was largely formed by the large volcanic eruption from the Lake Taupo volcanic complex 1800 years ago. The large outflow of volcanic debris blocked the old channel to the Firth of Thames at Lake Karapiro and forced the river to turn west and then north. The remains of the old river path can be clearly seen at Hinuera where the cliffs mark the ancient river edges. [Wikipedia]