Omeru and Waitangi Falls
Our day of driving a big loop west and north of Auckland, NZ to hike a bunch of waterfalls was fun. We finished the day aiming to see Waitangi Falls. It turned out that the park it was in, Omeru Scenic Reserve, had not one but three falls. One of them wasn't even shown on the map though it was a nice little falls and the trail led right to it. The park's namesake, Omeru Falls, was off trail and was also much bigger than user reviews led us to believe.
We bushwhacked through a bit of forest and over a slight hill to get to Omeru Falls. Possibly this fact of having to thread through the trees to see the actual Omeru Falls is why so many user reviews inaccurately referred to it as being small. The other falls was small- but nice! Omeru was taller and sublime.
After seeing the falls from the edge of basin I scrambled down a treacherous and damp path to perch on a rock just above the water level in the basin in at the foot of the falls. Here I setup my tripod and took pictures for several minutes. Why? Because the light kept changing! The sun was starting to poke out from behind the clouds- and that was bad, because it a) lit the falls unevenly and b) made it hard to capture a nice motion-blur of the falling water even with a neutral density filter. So I waited for the sun to go back behind the clouds, but just by the right amount so the scene wouldn't get too dim. 🤣
And while the sun was out? Well, while I was waiting for the sunshine to go away I took a few selfies to remind myself of how I practice my art. You can see my camera on the top of the tripod there. Yes, I carried my nice tripod on this trek. It wasn't a long trek, only about 1 mile round trip- and for photos of falls like this, it was totally worth it.
Once we'd had plenty of Omeru Falls we scrambled back up through the forest and rejoined the graveled trail. Gravel gave way to boardwalk as it took us to the back of the park and down into a basin for Waitangi Falls.
It was impressive how much we had this park to ourselves. I mean, we weren't the only people there. Well, at Omeru Falls we were. On the graded trails we saw two, maybe three, other small groups over the course of more than an hour. But for as nice as these falls are and as not-far away from the big city of Auckland (1.6 million people) as they are, the park was pratically deserted.
Because we had the park pretty much to ourselves it was enjoyable to dwell at each of the three falls. We spent time here at Waitangi Falls, the largest of three, before deciding to call it a day and hike back to the car. If nothing else we knew we'd be hungry for dinner on the 1.5 to 2 hour drive back to our hotel and didn't want to miss the ridiculously early hour most of New Zealand's restaurants close.
We bushwhacked through a bit of forest and over a slight hill to get to Omeru Falls. Possibly this fact of having to thread through the trees to see the actual Omeru Falls is why so many user reviews inaccurately referred to it as being small. The other falls was small- but nice! Omeru was taller and sublime.
After seeing the falls from the edge of basin I scrambled down a treacherous and damp path to perch on a rock just above the water level in the basin in at the foot of the falls. Here I setup my tripod and took pictures for several minutes. Why? Because the light kept changing! The sun was starting to poke out from behind the clouds- and that was bad, because it a) lit the falls unevenly and b) made it hard to capture a nice motion-blur of the falling water even with a neutral density filter. So I waited for the sun to go back behind the clouds, but just by the right amount so the scene wouldn't get too dim. 🤣
And while the sun was out? Well, while I was waiting for the sunshine to go away I took a few selfies to remind myself of how I practice my art. You can see my camera on the top of the tripod there. Yes, I carried my nice tripod on this trek. It wasn't a long trek, only about 1 mile round trip- and for photos of falls like this, it was totally worth it.
Once we'd had plenty of Omeru Falls we scrambled back up through the forest and rejoined the graveled trail. Gravel gave way to boardwalk as it took us to the back of the park and down into a basin for Waitangi Falls.
It was impressive how much we had this park to ourselves. I mean, we weren't the only people there. Well, at Omeru Falls we were. On the graded trails we saw two, maybe three, other small groups over the course of more than an hour. But for as nice as these falls are and as not-far away from the big city of Auckland (1.6 million people) as they are, the park was pratically deserted.
Because we had the park pretty much to ourselves it was enjoyable to dwell at each of the three falls. We spent time here at Waitangi Falls, the largest of three, before deciding to call it a day and hike back to the car. If nothing else we knew we'd be hungry for dinner on the 1.5 to 2 hour drive back to our hotel and didn't want to miss the ridiculously early hour most of New Zealand's restaurants close.