Last summer we spent Christmas/New Years at one of our favourite camping spots - Waihi Gorge.
Waihi Gorge has good swimming of its own, but the holes weren't quite so prodigious this year, so we decided to go check out the nearby Haehae Te Moana Gorge. As an added advantage the Te Moana river is normally a couple of degrees warmer.
I'd been genned in by a local about a legendary and semi-mythical waterfall further up the Te Moana valley - queue one trip up river, through fords that Karen wasn't too happy about.
Long story short. In a "The Beach" kind of moment we found it! And it certainly was legendarily beautiful and... cold!
Swims were limited to a couple of minutes max - I stayed in under the waterfall for 10 minutes, and came out numb all over. Nevertheless a fantastic afternoon... if only I can convince Karen to go back.
