Fantail Falls, upper Haast Valley, Mt Aspiring National Park

Mt Aspiring National Park is one of New Zealand’s largest national parks. Granted World Heritage status in December 1990, it is widely recognised for its magnificent alpine scenery, deep glacial valleys, beautiful rivers and lush podocarp and beech forests. The national park is traversed by State Highway 6, which follows the glacial Haast Valley inland from the West Coast to Haast Pass and down to the Makarora Valley and Lake Wanaka to the south.

The Haast Pass road, reaching just 562 metres above sea level, is the lowest-altitude route across the main divide of the Southern Alps. Completed in 1960, it is also the only route across the Alps south of Arthur’s Pass, providing a vital link between the West Coast and Otago regions. One of the most scenic highways in New Zealand, the highway offers visitors a wide range of side trips from five-minute bush walks to more challenging multi-day tramping excursions into the heart of the Alps. Beside the road, rushing streams and waterfalls with evocative names such as Thunder Creek Falls, Roaring Billy Falls and the Gates of Haast all invite travellers to stop along the way and experience some of the majesty of this pristine environment

One such waterfall is Fantail Falls in the upper Haast Valley, where Fantail Creek cascades over a low rocky ledge to join the Haast River. The creek originates from a small, steep alpine catchment below 2174-metre Mt Armstrong, and, like most waterways in the area, responds remarkably quickly to heavy rain in its headwaters. The falls are close to the Haast Pass road and are one of the most popular and most photographed attractions in the Haast Valley. They can be reached via an easy, well-signposted, two-minute bush walk from a nearby carpark.