
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.
- 34%Jan
- 32%Feb
- 36%Mar
- 47%Apr
- 76%May
- 92%Jun
- 100%Jul
- 97%Aug
- 81%Sep
- 63%Oct
- 44%Nov
- 42%Dec
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.
Getting there.
- Pihanearest town · 2.4 km in a straight line
- Parking 750 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Auckland International Airport (AKL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 27 km in a straight lineCar hire at AKL airport (Auckland)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From June to Septemberbest months to go (estimate)
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.
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.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
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.
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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 20 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 17 | 19 |
| Night °C | 18 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 16 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 68 | 68 | 77 | 88 | 127 | 124 | 129 | 123 | 103 | 89 | 67 | 86 |
| Wet days | 10 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 12 |
| Sun h/day | 8.8 | 7.8 | 7.2 | 6.0 | 4.8 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 6.9 | 7.8 | 7.7 |
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.
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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 36% | 44% | 107% | 60% | 117% | 104% | 122% | 120% | 81% | 69% | 175% | 68% |
| 2021 | 104% | 101% | 163% | 86% | 71% | 127% | 107% | 96% | 158% | 156% | 104% | 119% |
| 2022 | 68% | 191% | 100% | 73% | 106% | 158% | 191% | 129% | 130% | 148% | 267% | 137% |
| 2023 | 430% | 272% | 102% | 127% | 161% | 119% | 75% | 67% | 129% | 83% | 124% | 152% |
| 2024 | 108% | 79% | 119% | 93% | 66% | 97% | 109% | 106% | 98% | 126% | 120% | 90% |
| 2025 | 116% | 39% | 72% | 192% | 90% | 157% | 188% | 111% | 127% | 147% | 205% | 105% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1743866) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX 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.






