Parking
DOC car park at the end of Lower Hollyford Road (unsealed). Basic toilets on site; allow extra time for the gravel drive.
Overview
About Humboldt Falls Track
Why go
- Big-waterfall views for minimal time and effort
- Often quieter than Milford Road hot spots
Heads up
- Viewpoint is distant with no access to the base
- Long gravel drive for a short walk
A quick payoff: a lush Fiordland rainforest walk to a lookout facing the three-tiered Humboldt Falls, dropping about 275 m. It’s one of the region’s taller waterfalls and looks especially dramatic after rain.
Parkwolf’s verdictWhy goMap & elevation
The route
Loading the Fiordland map
Full mapElevation73–137 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Best time to go
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Fiordland Tour Guide
Your drive to Humboldt Falls Track, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Fiordland National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Fiordland audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Hollyford Valley: Waterfalls and TrampingListen
“The road ahead leads down into the Hollyford Valley, the starting point for some incredible walks.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Fiordland Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Hollyford Fault: A Straight Story
- Moraine Creek: A Raw Fiordland Tramp
- Rātā and Kāmahi: Fiordland’s Flowering Forest
- Davey Gunn’s Run: Bush Pilots and the Hollyford Airstrip
- 126 audio storiesacross Fiordland’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Kea, Fiordland Penguin, Blue Duck, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 68 trails, 124 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Humboldt Falls Track
The walkThis is an out-and-back track of about 1.2 km (0.
This is an out-and-back track of about 1.2 km (0.75 miles) total, typically 20–40 minutes return. Expect a well-formed path with a gradual climb and roughly 64 m (210 ft) of vertical relief on the mapped corridor, some steps, and occasional mud after rain. You’ll wind through dense temperate rainforest—beech, mosses, and ferns—with the sound of water nearby, before reaching a signed viewpoint. The vantage is high and a bit distant; you won’t access the base, but you’ll get a broad view of all three tiers (the largest single drop is roughly 134 m).
Conditions and logisticsAccess is via unsealed Lower Hollyford Road; it can be rough after wet weather—drive it with…
Access is via unsealed Lower Hollyford Road; it can be rough after wet weather—drive it with care and allow extra time. There are basic toilets at the trailhead car park, but no other facilities. No fees, and no dogs allowed. The track is not wheelchair accessible.
TipsSet expectations: this is a viewpoint walk, not a base-of-the-falls adventure.
Set expectations: this is a viewpoint walk, not a base-of-the-falls adventure. If you have time, pair it with nearby trails off the same road (for example, the popular Lake Marian Track). There’s also a swingbridge over the Hollyford River near the Humboldt Falls car park (on the Moraine Creek track) if you want to stretch the outing.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Fiordland
1,181 sightingsKeaMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
199 sightingsFiordland PenguinMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
228 sightingsBlue DuckMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
32 sightingsBottlenose DolphinMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
247 sightingsNew Zealand Fur SealMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
58 sightingsKākāMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Fiordland. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
