Dawson Falls

Dawson Falls drops about eighteen metres over the edge of a lava flow that came down this side of Taranaki roughly 1,800 years ago - the columnar structure in the rock face behind the water is that flow in cross-section. The walk from the visitor centre is ten to fifteen minutes down through mossy goblin forest to a viewing platform, with steps back up. Beside it, and easy to miss, is one of the older working hydroelectric plants in the country: a small station commissioned in 1896 to supply the mountain house, still generating. The area is one of the three road ends into Egmont National Park and a hub for longer tracks - the Wilkies Pools loop over smoothed lava, the Kapuni Loop, and the routes onto the Around the Mountain Circuit. The forest here is the twisted, lichen-hung kamahi that grows on this mountain and looks like nothing else in the country.

What you actually see

• The eighteen-metre fall - over the edge of an 1,800-year-old lava flow.
• The 1896 power station - small, historic and still generating.
• The goblin forest - twisted, moss-hung kamahi on the approach.
• Wilkies Pools - the loop over water-smoothed lava nearby.

When to go

November to April. After rain the fall is heavier and the steps slippery. The mountain makes its own weather - check the forecast even for the short walks.

Honest expectations

The walk down is steps, and they must be climbed back. Weather changes fast at this altitude. Facilities are limited to the visitor centre, which has restricted hours out of season.

Nearby

The Pouakai Range and its tarns are north; Stratford and the Forgotten World Highway are east.