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New Zealand New Zealand Waterfall

Kitekite Falls

A 40 m drop.

When to go

Kitekite from track
Carpenter0 at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

40m

Height

Jun–Sep

Best months

104m

Elevation

The water at Kitekite Falls, month by month

It roars from May to September.

The fullest months: from May to September.

  1. 34%Jan
  2. 32%Feb
  3. 36%Mar
  4. 47%Apr
  5. 76%May
  6. 92%Jun
  7. 100%Jul
  8. 97%Aug
  9. 81%Sep
  10. 63%Oct
  11. 44%Nov
  12. 42%Dec
high water best months to go

Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.

Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in New Zealand

Kitekite Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. The water falls 40 m. It lies within Waitākere Ranges Regional Park.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

40 mKitekiteFalls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Kitekite Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The river through the falls
100 m200 mKitekite Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 226 m in 2.2 km. Here the river runs about 94 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 9viewpointsKitenui Knob and 8 more
  • 2waymarked walking routesHillary Trail, Maungaroa Lookout Track
  • 17car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • 14picnic sites
  • 6toilets
  • 1information boards and visitor centres
  • 6bus stops within 1 km
  • 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmKarekare Falls, Opal Pool Stream Cascade
  • 1caves
  • 7campsitesOdlin Campsite, North Piha Campers’ Club Campground, Piha Domain Motor Camp and 4 more
  • 7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmPiha Surf Accommodation, Piha Beach Stay, Black Gecko and 4 more
  • 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

  • Piha2.4 km in a straight line
  • Waiatarua8.9 km in a straight line
  • Oratia12 km in a straight line
  • Waima13 km in a straight line
  • McLaren Park13 km in a straight line
  • Konini14 km in a straight line
  • Western Heights14 km in a straight line
  • Henderson15 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C202120181614131314151719
Night °C181817161412111112131416
Rain & snow (mm)68687788127124129123103896786
Wet days10911131617171815141212
Sun h/day8.87.87.26.04.84.34.65.46.26.97.87.7

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (104 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Kitekite Falls, Piha (2013) 01
russellstreet · CC BY-SA 2.0
Kitekite Falls, Piha (2013) 02
russellstreet · CC BY-SA 2.0
Kitekite height pic
David Burgess · CC BY-SA 3.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202036%44%107%60%117%104%122%120%81%69%175%68%
2021104%101%163%86%71%127%107%96%158%156%104%119%
202268%191%100%73%106%158%191%129%130%148%267%137%
2023430%272%102%127%161%119%75%67%129%83%124%152%
2024108%79%119%93%66%97%109%106%98%126%120%90%
2025116%39%72%192%90%157%188%111%127%147%205%105%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Kitekite Falls

New Zealand

  • 40 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

Karekare Falls

New Zealand

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

The Cascades

New Zealand

  • —Height
  • —Average flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

Waitākere Falls

New Zealand

  • 95 mHeight
  • 0.71 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q1743866) · CC0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves or dark skies?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

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cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Coming soonVisit
dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Coming soonVisit