Whangarei Basalt volcanic field erupted off and on over the last 4 million years. The basalt erupted as scoria cones and lava flows. The older cones have mostly eroded away but their lava flows are still mostly present and eroding much more slowly.
Whangarei Falls flows over the edge of a basalt flow from one of the older volcanic centres at Vinegar Hill.
The basalt lava flow has two sets of cooling joints - planar and horizontal at the top and vertical columnar at bottom and in the middle.
Look for the well-formed cooling columns at the base of the falls on their east side.
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Directions/Advisory
Park in Whangarei Falls Scenic Reserve Carpark on Boundary Rd, just off Kiripaka Rd to Tutukaka.
Keep out of the river and off the rocks above the falls - it is extremely dangerous. Do not climb the safety fences.
Easy wheelchair access to lookouts over falls. Walking track also takes a circuit from top of falls down to the bottom to view them and back up the other side.
Features
VolcanicLandform
Geological Age
Late Pliocene, erupted about 3-4 million years ago.
Zealandia Evolution Sequence
Māui Supergroup (Emergence): 25 – 5 million years ago
Links
See Hayward;B.W.;2017. Out of the Ocean into the Fire. History in the rocks;fossils and landforms of Auckland;Northland and Coromandel. Geoscience Society of New Zealand Miscellaneous Publication 146;p. 295 (site 12) Fig. 9.43;9.45;