A walk to Te Wairere Falls

So since we moved to Kerikeri we've been looking up local areas to visit. The other half has been on a quest to find waterfalls around here - so far this is the 5th one we've found. With Spring here there has been alot of colour blooming - this Genista is a very vibrant yellow and there was about 3 or 4 in amongst the walk. 

This walk is called Te Wairere Stream Falls - so beautiful and peaceful and quiet, we were the only ones there. The pathway itself was quite slippery and muddy in places, I expect in Summer it will dry out quite a bit.

The walk takes about 35 minutes from start to finish and we crossed several bridges along the way.  As we walked around there was a little fantail that flitted around and followed us, crossing our paths several times but it was so quick we could never get a decent photo.

Every couple of weekends or so we try to get out and explore somewhere new. Want to know how I first got into walking? A few years ago after a bad breakup I went through a depression. I'm normally quite a positive person so after about 6 months of just feeling yuck and constantly down I knew i had to pull myself out of what felt like a dark hole.

A friend invited me to take part in a 8k walking event with her - I had never done one before so I accepted thinking it would be easy but it was really really hard work but it got me into walking and since then I try to walk at least 3-4 times a week plus get out with the other half and I have to say we now really enjoy it - there's nothing like finding new places.

This place had several swimming holes, the water at the moment would be fairly cold but we were wondering come Summer whether there would be more people here. Apparently access to the waterfall was lost for 60 year and was only opened back up again in April 2017. At the end was this wonderful waterfall - we just wanted to sit here and enjoy the tranquility. Back in the horticultural heyday of the town it was pretty much the town's only recreational spot.