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New Zealand New Zealand Waterfall

Mokoroa Falls

A 11 m drop.

When to go

Mokoroa Falls
Interesting009 · CC BY-SA 4.0

In numbers.

11m

Height

OpenStreetMap

0.44m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Jun–Sep

Best months

48kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Mokoroa Falls, month by month

It roars from May to September.

The fullest months: from May to September.

  1. 0.2 m³/sJan
  2. 0.2 m³/sFeb
  3. 0.2 m³/sMar
  4. 0.3 m³/sApr
  5. 0.6 m³/sMay
  6. 0.8 m³/sJun
  7. 0.9 m³/sJul
  8. 0.8 m³/sAug
  9. 0.7 m³/sSep
  10. 0.5 m³/sOct
  11. 0.3 m³/sNov
  12. 0.3 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 0.20 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.86 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from June to September.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in New Zealand

Mokoroa Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. The water falls 11 m.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

  • Muriwai Beachnearest town · 3.5 km in a straight line
  • Parking 1,200 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
  • Auckland International Airport (AKL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 34 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.

11 mMokoroa Falls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house56 mTower of Pisa

Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

48 kW

About 0.44 m³/s falling 11 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • enough to power about 12 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

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

Mokoroa 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 Mokoroa Stream through the falls
60 m70 m80 m90 mMokoroa Falls-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 32 m in 1.8 km. Here the river runs about 58 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 1viewpointsMokoroa Falls Lookout
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • 1car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmToroanui Falls, Waitoru Falls, Ōkiritoto Falls and 1 more
  • —caves
  • 3campsitesHoughtons Bush Camp, Muriwai Motor Camp, Pae o te Rangi Campground
  • 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMuriwai Lodge
  • 1restaurants 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

  • Muriwai Beach3.5 km in a straight line
  • Waitakere6.7 km in a straight line
  • Waimauku9.9 km in a straight line
  • Kumeu11 km in a straight line
  • Massey12 km in a straight line
  • West Harbour12 km in a straight line
  • Massey East13 km in a straight line
  • Western Heights13 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C212120191715141414151719
Night °C181818161412111112131416
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 (77 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

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.

Mokoroa Falls

New Zealand

  • 11 mHeight
  • 0.44 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

Kitekite Falls

New Zealand

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

See the guide

Waitoru Falls

New Zealand

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

See the guide

The Cascades

New Zealand

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

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q32281057) · CC0
Height of the drop© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
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 or canyons?

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