Access
Drive to Mitchells by turning off SH73 at Kumara or Lake Poerua, or by driving around the lake from Moana. A small car park is located just out of Mitchells, beyond a bridge to the east.
Carew Falls: 45 min, easy
The forest near the Falls is rich with diversity, scrambling with climbers, vines and epiphytes. Even the trees overhanging the car park support dozens of ferns and other perching and pendulous species. The track climbs within earshot of the river on an easy track. Before long it bursts onto massive granite boulders at the foot of the Falls. On a sunny day, this is an excellent lunch spot.
Up close, the water is visibly brown, stained with tannins leached from the soils of the basin above. Although not especially tall, they are still impressive, and it is fascinating to explore with the eye the intricate pattern of the component rivulets down the granite face of the Falls.
