Waterfalls of Waikato

Added: May 30, 2010

After leaving Rotorua we headed to Waitomo. I will write about Waitomo Caves in next post. I wanted to write something shorter this time and following 2 waterfalls provide a good opportunity for me. They are both in the same region - Waikato, but the distance between them is about 140km.

The whole region is nice green with rolling hills. They are either covered with dense foliage or with grass. We passed only a few kilometres away from place where Hobiton from the Lord of Rings movie is located. I have learned about exact location only couple of days ago. If we knew about it we would possibly do something differently. Not because we are Lord of Rings fanatics, but just because we could.

Marokopa Falls

It is located about 30km from Waitomo Caves. A road is curvy, uphill nearly all the time. We could see many birds of prey along the way and we surprised 3 of them as they feasted on (probably) possum directly on the road. On our way back we did not see any dead possum on the road, so they did a good job.

We arrived to Marokopa Falls just on time, shortly before sun got too low to be useful. Falls is facing to west so it was nicely shining in setting sun.

We were not only people interested in this scenery (and heading to Marokopa Falls). But the others arrived to this place before us and they had huge tripod so we leaved them alone and stopped here on our way back to Waitomo.
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Whole view of Marokopa Falls, followed by couple of details. I really like fern trees around. They help to finish that nice view of waterfalls.
Marokopa Falls panorama during sunset

Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls are located more to north, we went there after visiting Waitomo Caves next day on our way to Auckland.

Similarly to Marokopa Falls, it is 10 minutes walk from car park through forest. Nice Nikau palms are all around. We went along to small stream. We hoped it was not source of waterfall... Well, we hoped in vain, because it was. But 55m height was enough to compensate and make this waterfall spectacular.

There are not many waterfalls you can see easily from the place where water starts to fall down, from side, from the middle and also from bottom. But all this can he seen here. Wonderful!

It is amazing how beautiful waterfalls can be created by such a small stream.
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