Falls Which Pour From Cliff Face

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 594, 21 February 1929, Page 1

Falls Which Pour From Cliff Face

Taraivera Beauty Spot | TOURIST POSSIBILITIES (From Our Oxen Correspondent J WHAKATANE, To-day. A valuable scenic asset, the Tarawera Falls, is possessed by the Bay of Plenty district, but the difficulty of access has restricted visits to this spot. Visits are rarely paid to the falls, j but an organised party of Whakatane j .residents made the trip recently. The falls are 43 miles from Whakatane, and the motor journey was made over difficult country. Mount Edgecumbe was passed. The hist three miles were covered on foot through manuka scrub and thick bush- Mr. W. Gardiner, the leader of the party, had to blaze a track.

After rain inland, there was a tremendous volume of water. The falls are unique in that they pour from fissures in a cliff face from 150 ft to 200 ft. high. Water does not flow over the cliff top. The highest fall is from a huge opening in the rock wall and the drop is over 100 ft. Further down is a bigger fall, and countless small falls shoot from smaller crevices. Water from Lake Tarawera, four or five miles away, feed the falls. There is always a big volume of water going through the rock face, but the rainy season sees an enormous outflow.

The falls are little known, even among the residents of the district. Even though the location is out of the way and well off the beaten ick for tourists, the roads can be covered comfortably in good weather. The native bush in the vicinity is extremely well preserved in its natural state. Scenery in the bush alone is stated by those who have made the trip to the falls to be well worth the journey. There are immense groves of pongas. The track to the falls is over comparatively easy gradients, and forest-clad hills towering on eithe.r sido make suitable frames for the bush views. Shallow streams have to be forded occasionally* The first glimpse of the falls is through a huge frame of pongas and vines.