Taheke waterfall

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One thing I miss about home is an Ordnance Survey map, especially the large scale walking maps. Because here, you go to the tourist office and pick up a brochure with 15 walks in it, and they tell you where to park the car, and mention a waterfall, or a headland, but no details. Every single road here has a name, even in the middle of nowhere, but not the houses - they all have numbers, which tells you the distance in kms from town, eg Robyn and Leigh are 647 State Highway 14, which means 6.47 kms from Whangarei. So, the walk leaflet tells you to park at the end of Horeb Road, and you need the AA map to find the road!!! When you reach the car park/lay by, there's often nothing to tell you you're at the right place. After that you're on your own - climb a stile, follow a red triangle (of which there are many, and going whichever direction you choose!) or your nose. And hope you have a good sense of direction or you'll be lost in the bush!

However, we managed very well this afternoon, to find a spectacular waterfall and have a lovely walk miles from anyone else and totally surrounded by bush. It was so quiet, and not a house to be seen. Here are the pictures.

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Photos

There's the sign
so lets climb the stile.

taheke falls
this is just the top section of the falls. There's a platform to stand on (only 5 people!), and you can't get a picture of the whole thing.

looking down
because of the rain, the fall was in full spate

looking down
over the platform at the water.

Fern trees
I love these trees, so different from anything at home. We think they're called pungas, I'll check that though.

Into the bush
explorers both

narrow path
here it was 18 inches wide, then dense bush.

foxglove
now, I've seen one of those before.

Whilst we were out
Robyn and Jen did their tree, and put up fairy lights, and Leigh did the crib and the angels!