[NZ/North Island]A walk in the mud to find the Wairere falls

During the Oct long weekend, Dr. R finally agreed to leave his work at home (and it wasn’t true at the end) and went travel with me for a mini NZ trip.

Lets face it. Sydney Blue mountain’s waterfall is like a shower head water flow.Thats why I am super looking forward to see some real waterfalls. Wairere Falls is located 1 and half hours drive distance from Auckland and have less people than Huka Fall. According to the review,  this fall is more chic and stunning. Since I got to pick the itinerary, I picked this track as the Day 1’s first activity.

(on the way to the hiking track)

We didn’t expect that the entry was located in a corner of a farm and you can see group of cows and sheep (and with the usual animal smell, if you know what I mean):

The entry has this sign which indicated that we didn’t at the wrong place:

You can clearly see that it just rained and it was kind of muddy. On the sign, it said:

Wairere falls track

Lower lookout – 45 min one way

Top lookout 1hr 30min one way 

Walking track crosses rocky area, has many steps and can be very steep

Base on my experience of both New Zealand and Australian hiking track grade, this is probably equivalent to the hardest grade in Australia. However, I was pretty confident to my skills, which proved I was a little bit over confident.

First of all, you are hard to get loss in this track because it is pretty much only have one way up and down. Secondly, a set of proper hiking gears (hiking shoes with waterproof and also hiking stick if you have knees problem)  is highly recommended.

Most of this track is off tracked and look like this:

without a pair of hiking shoes with thick soles, your feet can be hurt to walk here about 3 hours.

The first half of the track was kind of dry even after the storm on previous day, although it required us to climb over some rocks or fallen tree branches, then after around 50 mins (45 mins require you to walk moderate to fast without stop), we arrived the lower lookout platform:

I have to say the waterfall is very stunning and its much fascinating than just look from the photo. I was super excited like a small kid. Then Dr. R asked me whether I want to keep going to the top lookout. Given the track to lower lookout wasn’t that bad, I said yes.

From here to the top lookout, the track was much harder to walk on. The rain washed out the basic stairs and most of the up hill track was in deep mud. it was slippery and the worse things was it was close to the cliff. Couple of time I slippered and I was so scared that i might fall over the cliff.

(look how muddy it was!)

(the track to here was so slipper and i thought i might fall into this small river…)

The worse part was after you walked so exhausted in the mud, you suddenly see those super long and endless stairs:

But the local New Zealander seems totally fine with it and I even see them brought dog here?! I wanted to give up half way but with this strong curiosity of what the top look out will look like, I tried my best (and even used my hand at some point).

When it get near the top, you can see some short waterfall:

Make me so looking forward to the actually look out point at this point in time. But guess what? the top look out wasn’t about water fall, its about the view, the stunning and magnificent view:

Even i was pretty grumpy about Dr.R’s laughing about my bad walking posture in the mud at my back, at this point in time, I just feel joy. Whether it worth another 45 mins single way of muddy walk to here? its your call, but I say yes.

Its another 1.5 hr return to our car in the mud, and I washed my muddy shoes in one of the small poodle under the waterfall.

Again, a pair of Gore-tex hiking shoes is a must to a after rain hiking here. otherwise you probably will crying about your shoes by now.

Last, those green moss were so cute

Argh, I love waterfall. feeling the power from our mother nature but peaceful at the same time. And thanks my dear carry the heavy camera for me and deal with my bad mud walking way. LOL.

Tips:

The whole track probably will take more than 3hrs for people who not that fit. Also walk slow if its after rain.

Visited 1st Oct 2016