The day was still young when we finished our tour of Hobbiton, and we were keen to not let the remaining few hours of daylight go to waste. We’re not the type of people to let an evening slip by us if there’s even a little scope for squeezing in another mini-adventure, and so, instead of reflecting on the amazing afternoon we’d just had, we jumped back in the car and made course for yet another amazing destination.
We mentioned previously how Matamata lies in the shadows of the Kaimai Range Mountains. If you drive just 15 minutes from town, you’ll reach the highest waterfall on the island, which to be brutally honest, isn't actually as impressive as the title implies. What separates this from the rest though, is that you can stand at the top and look down 153 metres into the valley below, but more on that in a bit.
You can drive all the way to the start of the walking track, which begins at the Wairere Falls car park. From here you’ll be faced with two choices - to go to the viewpoint, which is 1.7 km with an elevation of 240 metres and should take around 30 minutes, or to push an extra half an hour and climb to the top, which will see you walking 2.7 km up to a height of 390 metres. The track is fairly steep so the return journey won’t take half as long.
Initially, we were unsure whether or not we wanted to climb all the way to the top or if the viewpoint would be satisfying enough on it’s own.
Sabina struggles with gradients because she’s old, so we planned to play this one by ear. Obviously, I am NOT old (woman never get old) ... just my lungs are small.
At the start of the track there are toilets, it’s probably a wise idea to use them as they are the only ones you’ll come across. Once you step into the forest reality starts to fade away, as you become surrounded by peculiar moss-covered boulders reminiscent of the trolls from the film Frozen.
Going deeper, the scenery takes a jungly twist and the initially small boulders become huge towering features of what begins to echo another world. We’ve been to a few places that make you feel far away from home and isolated from normality in the most mystical ways, this was one of our favourites. The track follows the cascading Wairere Stream, of which several times you’ll need to cross. A series of bridges will ensure your feet stay dry whilst doing so.
We came to the first bridge after about 10 minutes and immediately stopped to take photos... It just looked amazing, like everything else there to be fair. In fact we could have easily spent a long time at the bridge but that’s not the reason we went, and remembering that a waterfall awaited us we continued up hill. From this point the track starts to get a little steeper but the worst was yet to come.
On our way up we came across a small sign, carved into it were the words “1 min walk” and an arrow pointing to a small path. If that doesn’t spark curiosity then what does? We followed the path and came to a grassy hill where, at the top was a wooden throne - The International Seat of Peace. We both had a turn at sitting on the seat, of course, and after taking in the view and taking some photos we headed back on the track.
After approximately half an hour we reached the point where the track becomes steeper, that is, the point where the path becomes a series of wooden staircases... big, steep staircases. For Sabina, this was bad news, as for her climbing stairs is about as easy as reaching things on high shelves, near impossible. Liam on the other hand didn’t actually seem to notice the stairs at all, and ran off leaving Sabina far behind and out of breath as usual. Naturally, he also found this rib-crushingly hilarious.
Occasionally my lungs would catch up with me, only to be left behind again a few steps later.
‘Always look on the bright side’ they say... well, the stairs are very well built and maintained so they at least feel very safe. After a long time we eventually reached the top of the stairs and found ourselves in front of the giant waterfall, or maybe... in front of a big disappointment... possibly both.
To make this clear, this is the highest waterfall in the North Island - the water plunges an incredible 153 metres before crashing down into the pool below, but something was missing. For something so amazing the view should have been spectacular right? Well, we’re not sure to put it down to the lack of rain during the summer months or the trees that obscured so much of the view. Perhaps our expectations were just too high.. whatever it was, the viewpoint didn’t do it for us, and so hungry for more, we continued up to the top.
Much, much later...
If we had a dollar every time Sabina complained about steps or took a break from walking up anything that resembles a slight gradient, we’d be able to solve the problem by buying a helicopter to take us to the top instead. However, the painful process of gradually getting there made us appreciate the final result that little bit more, as if we’d somehow earn’t it... of course in reality we just walked up some stairs but still, for one of us it was like making it to the Everest hall of fame.. a truly photo-worthy moment.
Unfortunately Sabina was too exhausted to actually take a photo when we reached the top, but not too exhausted to find the start of the stream that we had passed earlier. We couldn’t see which way to go from here, but like the detectives we are, we followed the shallow stream and soon enough arrived at the edge of the waterfall.. genius. Now, there’s a correct way to follow the stream to get to the viewing platform but that’s not actually what we decided to do; when we arrived the water was really shallow, so we literally walked down the stream to the cliff-edge. Alternatively, sticking to the path is probably a slightly safer option, and will take you to a point where you can look out over the Waikato Plains.
On some days, the water will be deeper than it was when we went, and providing the current isn’t too strong you can bathe in one of the pools at the top. We didn’t do this but instead took the chance to sit down and let our feet dangle down over the edge while we posed for a few photos. We won’t encourage anybody else to do this for obvious reasons. Coming back a little from the drop though but still with a spectacular view, we perched ourselves on some comfy rocks and had some lunch. This was one of Liam’s best coffee-with-a-view moments.
I think if my flask didn’t eventually become empty, I may have just stayed there forever drinking coffee and admiring the view.
On our way back down we had to pick up the pace to avoid being caught out by the impending nightfall. Luckily, Sabina doesn’t complain when going down stairs, otherwise Liam may have made her take the fast route. We made it out of the forest just in time - this took slightly less than an hour. For that night and the following, we stayed at Piopio campsite. Put simply, this campsite is amazing. You can stay for as long as you want and pay as little as you can afford. There is a shed for cooking with power outlets and flushable toilets. Speaking with the owner too, soon there will be showering facilities.
There are a lot of days which we can say we’ve thoroughly enjoyed so far during our time in New Zealand, but we'd probably say this one was our best yet. We loved every minute of our Hobbiton tour and to finish the day with such an amazing view, well we couldn’t ask for anything better. The icing on the cake was finding such a great place to stay for the next two nights - if you get the chance, give Piopio a try and don’t forget to make a donation, as this is how it’s come to be such a nice campsite. Days like this don’t come around too often but when they do, they really do make you feel on top of the world.
Up next: Heading to Mordor
More photos in our GALLERY