New Zealand 
In numbers.
0.36m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Jul
Nov
Best months
89m
Elevation
The water at Purakaunui Falls, month by month
It roars from April to July and from October to January.
The fullest months: from April to July and from October to January.
- 0.3 m³/sJan
- 0.2 m³/sFeb
- 0.2 m³/sMar
- 0.3 m³/sApr
- 0.5 m³/sMay
- 0.5 m³/sJun
- 0.4 m³/sJul
- 0.3 m³/sAug
- 0.3 m³/sSep
- 0.4 m³/sOct
- 0.3 m³/sNov
- 0.3 m³/sDec
From about 0.22 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.48 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to July and November.
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 The Catlins, New Zealand
Purakaunui Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand.
Getting there.
- Papatowainearest town · 8.4 km in a straight line
- Parking 230 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Dunedin International Airport (DUD)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 82 km in a straight lineCar hire at DUD airport (Dunedin)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to July and Novemberbest 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.
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 52 m in 2.0 km. Here the river runs about 50 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesPūrākaunui Bay Campsite
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —restaurants 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
- Papatowai8.4 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 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 17 |
| Night °C | 10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 88 | 75 | 72 | 76 | 92 | 73 | 66 | 61 | 69 | 85 | 83 | 83 |
| Wet days | 15 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 15 |
| Sun h/day | 7.3 | 6.9 | 5.6 | 4.3 | 3.0 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 4.3 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.1 | 7.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (89 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 | 57% | 163% | 85% | 92% | 21% | 63% | 142% | 97% | 142% | 107% | 61% | 90% |
| 2021 | 165% | 50% | 61% | 75% | 91% | 125% | 89% | 121% | 126% | 61% | 92% | 83% |
| 2022 | 46% | 88% | 21% | 98% | 90% | 89% | 210% | 80% | 79% | 86% | 85% | 69% |
| 2023 | 24% | 86% | 150% | 68% | 103% | 90% | 148% | 95% | 127% | 52% | 68% | 82% |
| 2024 | 98% | 107% | 129% | 113% | 69% | 113% | 109% | 87% | 140% | 175% | 97% | 104% |
| 2025 | 55% | 46% | 97% | 77% | 70% | 147% | 50% | 90% | 142% | 136% | 76% | 121% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Purakaunui Falls
New Zealand
- —Height
- 0.36 m³/sAverage flow
- May–Jul, NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q38448) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| 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.
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