Arapuni is the oldest operating station on the Waikato River - completed in 1929 - and the powerhouse is protected under the Historic Places Trust. A feature of the bush-lined gorge below the powerhouse is the historic suspended footbridge, a popular destination for tourists and sightseers.

Lake Arapuni is the second largest lake in the Waikato hydro system covering 9.4sq km and is used for trout fishing, water-skiing, boating and swimming.

History

The Arapuni power station was the first government-built hydroelectric station on the Waikato River. During the initial surveying in 1916, an old watercourse was found just upstream of one of the narrowest parts of the gorge. In 1920, the surveying was halted due to lack of government funds to progress the project.

Construction finally began in 1924, but repeated heavy rain and the resulting floods dogged the early works. Just after the project was commissioned in mid-1929, the station was closed for two years while a water seepage problem was investigated and the headrace lined. The station began operating again in May 1932 with four generators installed. Four more machines have since been added.

In 2001, work was completed on four of Arapuni's turbines to increase capacity from 24.7MW to 26.7MW each and to improve their peak efficiency to 94 percent.

How Arapuni got its name

'Ara' means path and 'puni' means either blocked up or campsite. The meaning may be either 'pathway to the campsite' or 'a path blocked by some obstruction'.