#chasingwaterfalls - Part 2
21 February 2017
Ananui Falls
It was another scorcher of a day when we headed out on the Ananui Falls mission.
Neither Marc nor I had heard about this walk before until it was recommended by a work mate, so I jumped on the DOC website to suss it out further.
This track sounds like a perfect training expedition as it was a decent length, the DOC website said it would take around four hours was 10kms all up, in comparison Tongariro is 19.4km and roughly 7hrs (depending on fitness / weather etc).
One bonus we have found with being able to train for the Tongaririo Crossing by bushwalking rather than pounding the pavements around town, is that it is usually always cool under the shelter of the trees so it is so much more enjoyable than what it could potentially be at this time of year!
Ananui Falls is located in the heart of the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest and the track begins off the end of Woodlands Road, 10mins north of Katikati.
The trek is a 10km return journey and the Waterfall itself is situated approximately 5km into the hike and is an impressive 106 metre in height!
The walk, for the majority of it, was lovely and flat bush walk with a few minor river crossings. We did need to boost up a ridge which took roughly half an hour as we approached the waterfall. This was a little tough but was well worth it as this provided our first glimpse of the stunning waterfall.
Once we managed to lay eyes on it, the waterfall was spectacular to behold! Despite the trek to get to it, we were surprised at how relatively unknown it is.
It was amazing - once we reached the actual waterfall we were able to walk right out to it. It’s an incredible feeling to walk to the edge of a waterfall that drops 106 meters straight down to a pool in the forest floor! It was also rather special in that there was a cluster of Kauri trees growing right at the edge of the falls.
The walk took us approximately four hours to complete and we had timed it just right as the daylight was just starting to fade as we headed out of the bush. We probably should have packed a picnic dinner this day, however it was a handy stash of delicious bliss balls that pulled us through until dinner time.
At the end of the mission we were welcomed back at the car by a rather large and disgruntled chicken that appeared rather put out that we didn’t have any handouts for him! Poor Marc almost got a solid peck to the legs as he jumped into the car – maybe next time we will save a bliss ball for him as by this stage we didn’t have anything left in us to defend ourselves against an angry (territorial?) chicken!