Water mill

Another Great Activity! One of the best Auckland day trips is to the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland’s rough west coast and black sand beaches. A special treat is Lake Wainamu, a freshwater lake surrounded by native bush and...a giant sand dune to surf on!

Brilliant little trek out today. Wasn’t physically demanding but it was very muddy and somewhat potentially dangerous. But extremely fun! Very fun half day out, it rained the whole time but we didn’t care! If you’re expecting the hike to be clean and easy, then don’t bother going, this is a real hike through nature!

A fairly easy walk, beautiful views ending with a cold dip. Great place to go with some friends, water was deep enough to dive. 10/10. You get to enjoy the dunes, the lake and the falls all in one location. Lots of parking available and can follow the stream and it’s found at the end of the lake.

Sacred and magical place half way from the track.... so happy we discovered this place! The stillness of the water is refreshing for eyes and the water temperature is cool enough and envigorating. Worth the walk, worth a visit, worth admiring without deteriorating.

Easy walk around the lake, plenty of photo opportunities along the way

Not a bad hike but to those that do not know how to assess risk. Understand your limitations and is it necessary because some areas can follow pretty fast and environments can change after days of rain.

This is my honest view about this 'waterfall'! I would disagree with many writers here that it is an awesome experience. No, it is not!! I had done this in the summer but was very disappointed about the tiny little water drop called as a 'waterfall'. It was so tiny, short and a gutter size water volume in summer so I decided to do one in the winter. I am writing in mid winter 2022, soon after weeks of rain, yes, it was a lot better than peak summer water volume but then again it was not big, full volume either! Have a look at the photos I posted if you don't believe me! Its not realllllly a full, rich waterfall ;)Then there are other drawbacks. First, the track to this place is so confusing. The route markings are hopeless and misleading. Eg: about 5 minutes in to the track from the car park, you hit the Waiti stream and the track indication is to cross the stream and continue. Please do not!! Cuz it leads to nowhere inside a bush! Instead, just keep going on the same side of the stream until you come across a private land then turn left and start climbing the dunes. Beware, in certain unclear spots, such as junctions, there are no route marks at all!! Because it is an open track but crosses different landscapes, you need to be careful not to deviate and trespass private lands! Pretty bad job by whoever the authorities are!Then the other point is, you will need to cross the stream several times at many points because there are NO bridges provided to cross the stream so you need to remove your shoes unless you are wearing gumboots :) Putting shoes on again after crossing is pointless as you need to cross again and also you will have to walk on the shallow riverbed for about a km as there is no other track to continue! I felt a warning should have been displayed at the beginning of the track! I chose to cross the stream with shoes on because of the rough terrain you need some kind of footwear but it was not a pleasant one to walk with wet shoes thereafter :(All in all this track is not for the faint hearted. It is slightly over 4km one way, takes 1-2 hrs depending on your fitness. You need be in good shape and trim to climb the slippery but lovely sand dunes over a km and cross the river and walk along the riverbed for almost a km, not to mention about 50 or so steep steps to climb after the lake jetty. Also I strongly recommend not to take this up in the winter. The track was absolutely muddy in so many places, few earth slips with fallen trees and you need to wade through really slippery edges holding on to tree branches..........And in the end you meet with this tiny waterfall (again!) asking yourself is it really worth the trouble at all even in the winter unless you like the adventure part.

Beautiful easy walk to this waterfall. You will see more waterfalls just Climb up a bit more.

This is the halfway point of the lake trail if you're walking around it. You end up at a grassy area with the waterfalls in front of you. The falls are multilayered and you are able to hop into the pools to cool down a bit. We went further up the falls and the pools closer to the top had less people. Be careful heading up, it gets quite slippery and there is a bit where there is some rope to help you get up. We were around the third or fourth level of the falls. It looked like you were able to head further upstream but we opted to stop there, admiring the views.The pools were deep enough to swim in and cool yourself off in the heat. There is also a bit more shade here than at the lake with the trees and rocks surrounding the area.