Omaru Falls It took us a little over an hour return to both hike to the falls as well as spend some time taking photos of it. From the small pullout area (see directions below), we hopped over a stile and onto a paddock for the first part of the walk before leaving the paddock over another stile and entering some native growth forest.
Beyond the bridge, the trail followed the stream while flanking a fence that probably marked the boundary between the reserve and someone's property. Eventually, the track climbed up a short flight of steps up to an overlook affording us a nice view of the Omaru Falls while also allowing us to glimpse the gorge further downstream. And from what we could tell, there was no way for us to safely get closer to the falls' bottom. Directions: The Omaru Falls turnoff is about 20km south of the junction between SH3 and SH4 off SH4. This turnoff is real easy to miss, especially given how fast traffic moves on SH4. The way we went was from New Plymouth. We drove about 124km north on SH3 towards Totoro Rd, which left the highway and went east. We then turned right onto Aria Rd, which became Ohura Rd, and then became Mokauiti Rd. Mokauiti Rd eventually became Ramaroa Rd, which ultimately joined with SH4 where we took it north towards the Omaru Falls Rd turnoff on our left. TRIP REPORTSFor more information about our experiences with this waterfall, check out the following travel stories.GUIDEBOOKS / OTHER RESOURCESNEARBY WATERFALLSHave You Been To This Waterfall?
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The native growth forest stretch lasted for most of the hike it seemed. Since we hiked in the early morning, it was a little dark with lots of spider webs hitting my face as I was the lead hiker. In any case, the forest started to open up once we traversed a swinging bridge over the Omaru Stream that could only support one person at a time.
Going over the stile onto the paddock at the start of the hike
The narrow swinging bridge
Hiking alongside the Omaru Stream
Closeup of the falls
Another look at the falls
Julie checking out the falls
The falls with some morning light on it
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