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New Zealand New Zealand Waterfall

Wharepoke Falls

A 5 m drop.

When to go

Wharepoke Falls
ShakyIsles · CC BY-SA 4.0

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. 1.7 m³/sJan
  2. 1.6 m³/sFeb
  3. 2.3 m³/sMar
  4. 2.5 m³/sApr
  5. 3.8 m³/sMay
  6. 5.2 m³/sJun
  7. 6.3 m³/sJul
  8. 6.5 m³/sAug
  9. 4.7 m³/sSep
  10. 2.8 m³/sOct
  11. 1.9 m³/sNov
  12. 1.8 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

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.

Plan your visit

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How big is it?

How big it really is.

5.0 mWharepokeFalls1.8 ma person9.0 ma house

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.

Wharepoke 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 Kerikeri River through the falls
0 m20 m40 mWharepoke Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 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 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.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C232422201816151516181921
Night °C181918161513121212131416
Rain & snow (mm)7772918010311512312288707179
Wet days111112131515161714111312
Sun h/day9.78.87.76.55.54.85.06.07.18.48.89.0

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.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

00 0602 Wharepoke Wasserfälle, Neuseeland
W. Bulach · CC BY-SA 4.0
00 2601 Wharepoke Falls (New Zealand)
W. Bulach · CC BY-SA 4.0

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
202023%54%109%96%152%105%113%161%79%146%133%60%
202177%164%96%115%91%161%165%103%155%196%122%143%
202278%137%114%112%133%125%188%127%168%140%237%101%
2023283%166%69%234%198%115%54%73%84%158%79%166%
202487%50%55%117%60%131%101%124%106%107%114%83%
2025142%41%35%284%97%99%168%103%238%166%147%128%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Wharepoke Falls

New Zealand

  • 5 mHeight
  • 3.4 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

Rainbow Falls

New Zealand

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

See the guide

Haruru Falls

New Zealand

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

See the guide

Whangārei Falls

New Zealand

  • 26 mHeight
  • 0.88 m³/sAverage flow
  • Jun–SepBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q34682396) · CC0
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.