New Zealand 
In numbers.
35m
Height
9.8m³/s
Average flow
estimate
May–Aug
Best months
3.4MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Tarawera Falls, month by month
It roars from May to August.
The fullest months: from May to August.
- 6.5 m³/sJan
- 6.3 m³/sFeb
- 6.8 m³/sMar
- 9.4 m³/sApr
- 11 m³/sMay
- 13 m³/sJun
- 13 m³/sJul
- 12 m³/sAug
- 10 m³/sSep
- 8.6 m³/sOct
- 6.3 m³/sNov
- 7.4 m³/sDec
From about 6.3 m³/s in the lowest month to 13 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from May to August.
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
Tarawera Falls is a waterfall on the Tarawera River, in New Zealand. The water falls 35 m.
Getting there.
- Kaweraunearest town · 17 km in a straight line
- Rotorua Regional Airport (ROT)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 19 km in a straight lineCar hire at ROT airport (Rotorua)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From May to Augustbest 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.
3.4 MW
About 9.8 m³/s falling 35 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 1.1 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 843 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.
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 142 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 152 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesLake Tarawera Outlet 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
- Kawerau17 km in a straight line
- Ohinemutu21 km in a straight line
- Victoria24 km in a straight line
- Rotorua24 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 | 21 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 21 |
| Night °C | 14 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 13 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 72 | 73 | 80 | 104 | 103 | 112 | 113 | 98 | 82 | 81 | 57 | 96 |
| Wet days | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| Sun h/day | 9.4 | 8.1 | 7.5 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 4.4 | 4.7 | 5.6 | 6.4 | 7.6 | 8.7 | 8.6 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (253 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 | 27% | 17% | 69% | 28% | 65% | 214% | 105% | 101% | 56% | 73% | 206% | 28% |
| 2021 | 47% | 77% | 83% | 46% | 98% | 115% | 105% | 80% | 164% | 144% | 108% | 124% |
| 2022 | 41% | 219% | 196% | 55% | 118% | 190% | 218% | 87% | 269% | 160% | 352% | 163% |
| 2023 | 372% | 275% | 88% | 80% | 254% | 139% | 71% | 59% | 249% | 89% | 186% | 109% |
| 2024 | 106% | 69% | 79% | 72% | 103% | 124% | 113% | 102% | 54% | 139% | 81% | 94% |
| 2025 | 81% | 66% | 58% | 172% | 123% | 177% | 201% | 100% | 140% | 139% | 279% | 99% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Tarawera Falls
New Zealand
- 35 mHeight
- 9.8 m³/sAverage flow
- May–AugBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37274) · 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.
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