An excellent half day walk through one of the last remaining areas of untouched native bush in New Zealand. The Whirinaki Waterfall Loop Track is a great introduction to the wonderful 56,000 hectare Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park, a relatively little known place 1.5 hours drive east of Rotorua. It was thankfully saved from logging in 1984 and is now home to a number of tracks, including short walks, mountain biking, and up to 5 day tramps.

The River Road Car Park was one of the most atmospheric places I’ve ever parked by car, surrounded by towering native trees.

The bush here is just magical, temperate rainforest filled with dense podocarps.

New Zealand is justifiably well known for huge tree ferns.

I walked the track the day after torrential rain. The rain had thankfully mostly stopped, but the Whirinaki River was clearly flooded, a rather scary presence as the track runs by the river and I had fears of somehow slipping and heading down into the raging waters.

I got a rather wet leg and shoe on this section of track.

There were a few puddles around but the track has been well designed and built to minimise them.

The ones that remained were photogenic though.

I didn’t see a single person the whole day I spent walking in Whirinaki. It was early June, but the conservation park is surprisingly little known.

At the furthest point of the loop there is a toilet and picnic bench. After lunch there I walked around the corner to find this rather terrifying slip…

Unfortunately this was the only way to get round the steep terrain to continue the loop, and I didn’t want to risk my life climbing around an unstable cliff with a sheer drop down to the raging river below. I could see the bridge below, and the edge of the waterfall, but it was too steep to descend safely.

Instead I returned the way I came, which was fine as it offered a different perspective, and the sun even came out…

The bush was endlessly fascinating.

I took a short detour to take a look at Te Whāiti-Nui-a-Toi Canyon, filled with raging waters.