New Zealand Waterfall UNESCO World Heritage
Soda Springs Falls
One of the waterfalls of New Zealand.
In numbers.
2.0m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Apr
Oct–Dec
Best months
1,398m
Elevation
The water at Soda Springs Falls, month by month
It roars from May to October.
The fullest months: from May to October.
- 1.2 m³/sJan
- 1.0 m³/sFeb
- 1.0 m³/sMar
- 1.5 m³/sApr
- 2.2 m³/sMay
- 2.9 m³/sJun
- 2.8 m³/sJul
- 2.8 m³/sAug
- 2.5 m³/sSep
- 2.2 m³/sOct
- 1.6 m³/sNov
- 1.7 m³/sDec
From about 0.96 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.9 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from October to December.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Spring and waterfall in New Zealand
Soda Springs Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. It lies within Tongariro National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Turanginearest town · 23 km in a straight line
- Taupo Airport (TUO)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 59 km in a straight lineCar hire at NPE airport (Napier)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- April and from October to Decemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 423 m in 1.3 km. Here the river runs about 134 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 2viewpointsDevil's Staircase
- 3waymarked walking routesTongariro Alpine Crossing, GW - 02 Tongariro Northern Circuit, Te Araroa - 04 Manawatū-Whanganui - c Tongariro Alpine Crossing
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 3toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Turangi23 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 17 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 14 |
| Night °C | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | -1 | -2 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 67 | 66 | 65 | 84 | 95 | 106 | 96 | 93 | 88 | 88 | 69 | 94 |
| Wet days | 11 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 13 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 8.7 | 7.7 | 7.1 | 5.8 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,398 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 32% | 25% | 97% | 42% | 67% | 128% | 88% | 72% | 83% | 104% | 215% | 46% |
| 2021 | 75% | 41% | 140% | 44% | 72% | 101% | 91% | 103% | 128% | 128% | 77% | 146% |
| 2022 | 15% | 308% | 182% | 37% | 104% | 147% | 183% | 111% | 170% | 141% | 259% | 143% |
| 2023 | 292% | 239% | 104% | 66% | 182% | 79% | 76% | 68% | 151% | 64% | 159% | 146% |
| 2024 | 120% | 49% | 82% | 74% | 88% | 93% | 88% | 97% | 79% | 118% | 72% | 70% |
| 2025 | 54% | 33% | 91% | 90% | 120% | 148% | 178% | 71% | 99% | 184% | 152% | 129% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Soda Springs Falls
New Zealand
- —Height
- 2.0 m³/sAverage flow
- Apr, Oct–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q35517690) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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