Big Mertens Falls

We happened to see this waterfall while doing the aerial tour to Mitchell Falls. And from what we could tell, this seems to be the only way you can see the entire falls (relatively safely). For if you're on the Punamii-Unpuu Trail from Mertens Creek to Mitchell Falls, I think you're only passing by the top of the falls. Therefore, your view of Big Mertens Falls won't be that great, and it seems some daring scrambling would be necessary to get better views, which I wouldn't recommend doing given the rugged terrain and steep dropoffs.

Since the falls rests at the head of a gorge, it tends to be in shadow most of the day. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until around midday (when the chopper flew back to the Mitchell Plateau Airstrip) did we finally get a decent (albeit fleeting) look at the falls without the shadows making it terribly difficult to see. That's something to keep in mind if you want to capture decent photographs.

There is also a Little Mertens Falls, which has its own swimming hole. It's a 2.5km return walk from the car park at Mertens Creek and is along the way to Mitchell Falls on a spur off the Punamii-Unpuu Trail. We didn't do it given the relatively short time duration on our time up at the top since we didn't want to miss out on our ride back. In any case, we can't say a whole lot more about Little Mertens Falls for this reason.

Directions: Since we only saw this waterfall as part of the Mitchell Falls Explorer Tour, we'll punt you over to the Mitchell Falls page for directions and specifics on how we managed to get here.

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Aerial view of all the falls as well as Mitchell Falls in the adjacent drainage

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TRIP REPORTS

• June 9, 2006

GUIDEBOOKS / OTHER RESOURCES

NEARBY WATERFALLS

• Mitchell Falls

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