KeriKeri Rainbow Waterfalls Walk

Māori War Canoe

One option for today was to drive to the West Coast and have a scenic car tour incorporating a visit to the largest Kauai tree in NZ. However, we can also drive back to Auckland that way on Wednesday when we start our journey home, if it’s not raining as predicted. I didn’t really feel like spending the day in the car so we agreed to do a second waterfall hike in KeriKeri. In the end the predicted storm was forecast to be pretty bad so we headed directly to the airport hotel. Glad we did and returning the car took longer than we expected as the shuttle bus from the car hire did not turn up so we had to walk to the terminal and then wait for another shuttle to take us back to the hotel.

We started 5km upstream on the KeriKeri River from the Stone Store, (yesterdays trail head) with the goal of hiking down to Honey House Café for some tea and cake before retracing our steps. Hopefully in time to avoid the forecast afternoon rain (which didn’t materialize).

Our first view of Rainbow Falls were magnificent as it drops 27m to a large pool below. We decided to leave the top viewpoint until our return journey as something to look forward to. We didn’t know much about the hike so were really pleased that we could get right down to the water at the pool below the falls. Later in the day as it got warmer this became a popular swimming location. We were happy to see it in its natural splendour first thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see  several younger Kauri trees just a little further down the trail. Not easy to photograph. I can understand why loggers prized them so much as they were very tall straight trunked and already with a wide girth and no branches until the canopy.

Another charming forest hike, special memories from today:

• Fairy Pools, a cascade lower down the river. The sign had been changed to Fairy Poo!
• Wharepuke Waterfall close to the end of our walk
• The dappled sunshine through the canopy highlighting tree ferns and providing a magical sense of the forest
• The sound of the river throughout our walk and seeing how it changed as we got closer to the estuary – wider and slower moving in sections and then some more cascades
• The odd shaped tree trunks, some with knobbles, others with holes, not just the ones made by black tunnelweb spiders (not poisonous) , others dripping with ferns and climbing plants
• An old power house where they had diverted water to drive an engine to produce power. What I really liked was the deep narrow hand hewen chanel to stream the water back to the main river. Would be good to see this operational, not very likely!
• The maori replica long boat near the Stone Store. Given the length and width of this one could see why the Maori also prized Kauri trees for their boat building
• Seeing a faint rainbow at Rainbow Falls, when we returned to the top viewing point – hence the name. There was a lot of spray mist as the water thundered into the pool below and this was not even at full spate
• Having a glass of wine (rose bubbles for me) and  a cheeseboard at the Marsden Winery on our way home