New Zealand 
In numbers.
27m
Height
Jun–Sep
Best months
62m
Elevation
The water at Rainbow Falls, month by month
It roars from June to September.
The fullest months: from June to September.
- 39%Jan
- 37%Feb
- 47%Mar
- 50%Apr
- 66%May
- 84%Jun
- 98%Jul
- 100%Aug
- 77%Sep
- 53%Oct
- 42%Nov
- 41%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 Northland, New Zealand
Rainbow Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. The water falls 27 m.
Getting there.
- Kerikerinearest town · 1.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 930 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Kerikeri Airport (KKE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 6 km in a straight lineCar hire at WRE airport (Whangarei)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 42 m in 2.8 km.
What is around.
- 7viewpoints
- 4waymarked walking routesTe Wairere Waterfall Walking Track, Te Araroa - 01 Northland - c Puketi campsite, Wairare Road to Kerikeri (Stone St, Te Araroa - 01 Northland - d Kereikeri (Stone Store) to Waitangi Bridge and 1 more
- 50car parks
- —swimming spots
- 4picnic sites
- 4toilets
- 14information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmCharlie's Rock, Double Falls, Wharepoke Falls and 1 more
- —caves
- 4campsitesPagoda, Gibby's Place, Kerikeri Wagon Wheel Holiday Park and 1 more
- 23hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmLinton B&B, Relax a lodge, Hone Heke Lodge and 20 more
- 32restaurants 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
- Kerikeri1.5 km in a straight line
- Waimate North13 km in a straight line
- Haruru13 km in a straight line
- Paihia15 km in a straight line
- Opua20 km in a straight line
- Moerewa21 km in a straight line
- Kawakawa22 km in a straight line
- Kaikohe24 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 | 23 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 21 |
| Night °C | 17 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 16 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 77 | 72 | 91 | 80 | 103 | 115 | 123 | 122 | 88 | 70 | 71 | 79 |
| Wet days | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 12 |
| Sun h/day | 9.7 | 8.8 | 7.7 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 7.1 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 9.0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide. 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 | 23% | 54% | 109% | 96% | 152% | 105% | 113% | 161% | 79% | 146% | 133% | 60% |
| 2021 | 77% | 164% | 96% | 115% | 91% | 161% | 165% | 103% | 155% | 196% | 122% | 143% |
| 2022 | 78% | 137% | 114% | 112% | 133% | 125% | 188% | 127% | 168% | 140% | 237% | 101% |
| 2023 | 283% | 166% | 69% | 234% | 198% | 115% | 54% | 73% | 84% | 158% | 79% | 166% |
| 2024 | 87% | 50% | 55% | 117% | 60% | 131% | 101% | 124% | 106% | 107% | 114% | 83% |
| 2025 | 142% | 41% | 35% | 284% | 97% | 99% | 168% | 103% | 238% | 166% | 147% | 128% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Rainbow Falls
New Zealand
- 27 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Jun–SepBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q7284626) · 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 or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit 
lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.You are here
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit