The Waitakere Ranges Regional Park includes more than 16,000ha of native rainforest and coastline. Its 250km of walking and tramping tracks provide access to beaches, breathtaking vistas, spectacular rocky outcrops, streams, waterfalls and farms overlooking the wild west coast. So we just had to get out there and start exploring it.

We headed off and decided on the fairy falls trek. Fairy Falls goes from Scenic Drive, which is the drive along the Waitakeres. Initial section of track is level and gravelled but later descends steeply to the top of Fairy Falls (45 minutes). Track then makes an extremely steep descent partly down a boardwalk, beside the falls and continues downstream a short way before a gradual ascent to Mountain Road. It took us about 2 hours to do and was a really good trek to start off with. We had our lunch by the falls and had a really good day. It was time to head back and plan the next trek.

Fairy Falls Done!!