Haruru Falls is one of the few horseshoe-shaped waterfalls in New Zealand — a wide curving plunge over a basalt lip where the Waitangi River meets a tidal estuary. The name means "big noise" in Maori, which it is when the river is up after rain.
The falls can be reached by car in ten minutes from Paihia, but the better approach is on foot. A waymarked five-kilometre coastal-and-mangrove track starts at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and follows the river upstream through ancient stands of mangrove, finishing at a viewing platform looking down on the falls. Allow two hours each way, and check the tide before you start — sections of boardwalk flood at high water.