Wairere Falls: Photo a week challenge

We hiked up to Wairere Falls this morning. It's about an hour drive from our place, 40 minute walk to the lookout, and another 40 minutes to the top.  If you remember to look at the mountains at the right time of your drive towards Matamata,  you can see this large falls from the road several kilometers away.  It's an absolutely amazing place - we saw several tuis and heard LOTS of birds.  It was a large contrast to the lack of bird sounds at Wentworth last week!

While the photo a week challenge is about posting one photo (the best of the week), I'm going to go ahead and post several, because this area was so gorgeous and it's the really the first time I've gotten into using a camera in the last year!  (hint: if you click on one picture, it enlarges the picture and opens a slideshow type view - makes the pictures much easier to look at!)

I'm going to start with my favorite photo - the one that would get posted if I had to choose just one:

Wairere Falls: 17 March 2012. Secon Bridge Crossing

Wairere Falls: Beginning of Trail

Wairere Falls: First Bridge Crossing

Wairere Falls: Tree Fern

Wairere Falls: First Bridge Crossing

Wairere Falls: Along the Trail

Wairere Falls: From the Lookout

Wairere Falls: Closeup of top half

Wairere Falls: On trail to top

Wairere Falls: at the top!

Wairere Falls: Looking Down

Wairere Falls: Head Stream

Now.....contrast that shot of looking down the falls to the one taken over three years ago.  It was taken from several feet away from the edge in order to protect myself (and the camera) from getting wet!

Wairere Falls: 27 Oct 2008. Strong winds blow
the falls water back onto Dave.