When driving to the Central North, the route through the King Country (Te Awamutu, Te Kuiti, and Taumaranui) is a nice alternative to SH1. Nice scenery.

Tupapakurua Falls track starts 3kms along Fishers Track in National Park village, an awesome trail run or walk. The first part of the track is well graded up to Taranaki Lookout. The walk to the falls is downhill along a slightly rougher track marked with lots of blue tape, there are some cool viewing points along the way, especially the one that looks out over huge flat areas that are covered with ponga trees and give this Jurassic Park type panoramic view – awesome. Continue down to the bottom and follow the stream up to the falls, you can almost get right underneath them.