
In numbers.
5m
Height
3.4m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Jun–Sep
Best months
166kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Wharepoke Falls, month by month
It roars from June to September.
The fullest months: from June to September.
- 1.7 m³/sJan
- 1.6 m³/sFeb
- 2.3 m³/sMar
- 2.5 m³/sApr
- 3.8 m³/sMay
- 5.2 m³/sJun
- 6.3 m³/sJul
- 6.5 m³/sAug
- 4.7 m³/sSep
- 2.8 m³/sOct
- 1.9 m³/sNov
- 1.8 m³/sDec
From about 1.6 m³/s in the lowest month to 6.5 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 Northland, New Zealand
Wharepoke Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. The water falls 5 m.
Getting there.
- Kerikerinearest town · 1.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 150 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.
166 kW
About 3.4 m³/s falling 5 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 42 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 31 m in 2.8 km. Here the river runs about 32 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 8viewpointsKororipo Pā and 7 more
- 3waymarked 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
- 52car parks
- —swimming spots
- 6picnic sites
- 5toilets
- 19information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 4other named waterfalls within 4 kmCharlie's Rock, Double Falls, Rainbow 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
- 30restaurants 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
- Kerikeri1.6 km in a straight line
- Haruru12 km in a straight line
- Waimate North13 km in a straight line
- Paihia14 km in a straight line
- Opua19 km in a straight line
- Moerewa20 km in a straight line
- Kawakawa21 km in a straight line
- Kaikohe25 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 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 21 |
| Night °C | 18 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 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, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (21 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.
| 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.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q34682396) · 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.





