Waterfalls

On our very first day in New Zealand, when we visited a waterfall in the Waitakere Ranges, I had no idea how ubiquitous they are. Rain makes rainforests, and rain makes waterfalls, too.

Here's the first one we saw, near Karekare.

 

Typically, there were kiwis in the water, this a group of kids who were cooling off in the chilly water.

 

Our second waterfall appeared on the first day of the REI trip. Just before Arthur's Pass, we stopped for a short hike up to Devil's Punchbowl Falls. Here's a video of the rushing water.



The walk to the Franz Josef Glacier featured a pair of waterfalls.

 

This was just a random waterfall picture taken on the drive from Makarora to the Eglinton Valley. There were many such.

 

Our hike on the Routeburn Track up to Key Summit featured a glorious waterfall right along the path.

 

The road to Milford Sound wound through steep mountains. The waterfalls were abundant on our way in through the Homer Tunnel,

 

but the next day, after a wildly rainy night and persistent rain that morning, new waterfalls sprang up everywhere. This is a view through the bus windows.

 

I wish I had pictures from our kayak trip in Milford Sound - maybe later - because the waterfalls were everywhere, and we paddled right up to several of them.

The oddest waterfalls were in the Hooker Valley, where a couple of waterfalls simply disappeared into the scree. We couldn't see any place where they re-emerged.