Hunua Falls

The Hunua Falls are located on the Wairoa River in the Hunua Ranges Regional Park in Auckland. The 30 metre waterfall is a popular point of interest for hikers visiting the Hunua Ranges. It is known for its idyllic and picturesque beauty. The small lake below the falls is also a popular swimming spot for visitors.

Hunua Falls, on the Wairoa River, near Auckland, New Zealand
Hunua Falls | Wikimedia Commons – Licence CC-BY-SA-3.0

Beautiful but deadly

Despite its tranquil setting, there have been an unfortunate number of drownings which have occurred Hunua Falls. As of 2019, at least 16 people are known to have drowned while swimming at the falls. The swimming hole, formed by volcanic activity, falls away steeply underwater. There is a series of ledges at depths of five metres, eight metres and 15 metres down to the bottom at 30 metres. Visitors are warned that inexperienced swimmers can get into difficulty if not supervised. Several of the deaths have occurred when thrill-seekers attempted to dive off the top of the falls. This can prove to be very hazardous if you hit the water at the wrong angle, as the height is equivalent to an 10 storey building.

Paranormal activity at Hunua Falls

There have been various reports of unusual occurrences at Hunua Falls. Some people report strange feelings or energies at the location, and some visitors have reported odd voices being captured when filming video at the location. Whether these reports can be linked back to the tragic deaths at the location, the presence of moving water or some natural phenomenon, we may never know. The nearby YMCA Camp Adair also has many ghost stories associated with it. Could it be there is a paranormal hot-spot in the Hunua Ranges?

Do you have any stories to share about Hunua Falls? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below, or get in contact with us.

19 Comments

  1. ikram malek

    Hi i am a average swimmer .it is a dangerous place to swim.i was almost drowned but after a struggle and with the help of two people who pulled me out and saved my life.i recommend pls go for a picnic but not for swim especially kids.

  2. JPM

    In 1996 I was possessed by an entity at Hunua Falls. A friend and I had decided to take a walk across the footbridge below the falls. I was leading the way and it felt like I was being dragged across the bridge. I was going to suggest we go back but my friend had already turned around. Both of us were unnerved and slightly shook up.

    Then from the driver’s seat, I saw a group of figures, pale and dressed in grey. They were gathered together like a choir at the water’s edge. I asked my friend if she could see them, she said yes, and that’s when it happened. I felt a cold draft enter me at a spot near the bottom of my spine.

    My body was thrown forward and held against the steering wheel. I was unable to move. I cried out to my ancestors, grandparents and God to help remove the entity. After about ten seconds I was thrown back into the seat and the cold draft exited my body at the same spot. Outside my window I saw a young Polynesian teenager in black shorts, glistening wet, walking back towards the falls. He looked at me with an angry glare.

    Epilogue: I was renting a house in Pukekohe at the time. After I moved a young couple became the new tenants. Six months later I passed the old place with a friend noting numerous burnouts on the road. He said the dude had died at Huna Falls. His live-in girlfriend pushed him over the falls and he failed to surface. She committed suicide two years later.

    Then by chance, I dated his aunty nearly a decade later. I only knew this when she pointed to a real estate brochure with Hunua falls on the cover saying, “That’s where my nephew died.” I had an immediate visitation. I asked her who the man with the leather jacket was standing next to her nephew. She said it was his father who died in a motorbike accident. They were both smiling.

    1. Somebody

      I felt a weird presence at the bridge going towards the waterfall and when i got to the falls I started hearing voices as if my name was being called out

    2. Jazzy

      I went on a school camp to hunua ranges in 2016 and I saw a group of grey figures just next to the water fall and it looked like as if they were on their knees praying but I didn’t think much about it until I told one of the team leaders and they didn’t see anything .

  3. Maddi

    There is a legend there that not many people know about.

    Basically’ hundreds of years ago there was a father from a tribe who threw his daughters loved one of the cliff of hunua falls. He also threw the daughter off and it ended up killing them both.

    The daughter thinks her loved one could still be alive ‘ so she drags down young men and thats why there have been so many who have drowned there.

    It’s dangerous and you should’nt swim there.

  4. Josh

    We were staying at the cabins at hunua for a school trip for the weekend. Well anyways about 20 of us went for a walk through the ranges at night with candles to a bonfire they had set up. Before we went our tutor mentioned that apparently there were some people who had seen red eyes glowing in the dark. I thought it was lies to be honest untill when we were walking through i happened to see two red lights floating in the distance at that time i thought it was someone trying to prank us. Unphased i strayed from the group and started approaching where i could see them I was saying things like hey cmon i aint scared i know your there trying to prank us “thinking it was one of the teachers from the group” As i got closer the lights actually looked like Red evil eyes then as i got right next to it i swished my hands and they went straight through it i got the most coldest feeling ever then out of no where they just started vanishing in to thin air untill they were completely gone. Thats when the fear kicked in, i fully sprinted back to the group while almost tripping over branches and logs. As i got back i didnt tell anyone about what i had seen only my parents. Thats when they told me that alot of bad things happenedin that area. This story is 100 percent true

  5. Anonymous

    I stayed at the cabins for a school trip and the time we went to the waterfall I was feeling some strange energy and heard a scream, but am I the only one that saw the small little cave on the right side of the waterfall and at the ceiling of the small cave it said something like die something, I don’t know but I kept getting strange feelings around the waterfall

    1. Anonymous

      Back when I heard the scream, when I heard the scream I was just in shook I couldn’t move I ran closer to the group a few minutes later my friend said he saw some blue ish floating looking in the swimming part below the waterfalls and the blue looking figure had looked like it had hands and head but no arms or body attached just the 2 hands and head looks like it was reaching out to the person that was close to it

  6. hi im a swimmer this is in 2019 me and my mates went for a run and my friend jumped in and never came back up untill his face was facing us and grabbed his whole face and he is safe and the other day we saw 2 strange voices at once saing this place is tapu me and my mates ran and we saw 2 strange figures standing at the falls waving

  7. Caleb

    Me and my little brother did a insulation job at kokako lodge just past the falls. It was a 3 day job in that 3 days a tribe of spirits enterd my brother, i believe it could be the fairys that live there from way back. My brother was possessed. And im talking like conjuring typa possessed, so happy we have the right help and that god and my tupuna were watching over us. We are still going through it. Its been over a month now and hes only just coming right. Theres so much details im not going to say because its so sad. But just know this place is very tapu, and to do a karakia/prayer when leaving the place. God bless.

  8. Anonymous

    I’ve been to Hunua falls and when I went over the bridges I felt somebody watching me and it was a piercing feeling. Then when I went over to the small cave I heard yelling and when I got back to my parents I asked if they called out to me and they said no.

  9. Rowena

    My son and his girlfriend went for a swim at Hunua falls to he other day as it was so hot. He had taken a selfie of them. I could see the falls in the background rung him that night and told him they were never to goe there again because of the haunting stories from the past .

  10. Rain smith

    I went hiking this weekend. Stopped to take a video and noticed a dark figure in the woods on the path behind me. At the end of my video the figure was still in the same place. In other videos and photos I can zoom in and make out a persons features. This one was weird…. A solid figure with no features at all. A few mins later it was gone . Only realised later no other hiker past me wearing all black. Creeped the hell out of me.

  11. Papatoetoe

    A good friend broke his neck diving in to the falls. He had seen what looked like a huge white eel, coiled around what he described as it’s offspring. This was during the night.
    He is not of Maori desent but he is convinced there is a “taniwha” living in Hunua falls.

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