Campground · Mount Aspiring National Park
Open camping, a short stream walk, and Mount Hooker on the skyline.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Aspiring Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Aspiring 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 Mount Aspiring audio tourRecorded for this place
Pleasant Flat: A Picnic and a Stream Walk“Pleasant Flat is coming up, an open grassy campground and picnic stop with views toward Mount Hooker. If you want a break from the waterfall stops, this is a place to eat your picnic and stretch your legs.”
Plays as you drive up to Pleasant Flat Campsite in the Parkwolf Mount Aspiring Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“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!!!!”
Guide
Pleasant Flat Campsite is a campground and picnic area on a broad grassy flat beside SH6, 45 km east of Haast. Its 22 non-powered/tent sites make it a handy overnight break on the Haast Pass drive, with an open outlook toward Mount Hooker and a short walk beside a mountain stream. Book ahead. It is a simple place to stop rather than a full-service holiday park, so bring meals and drinking water.
A short bush walk follows Muir Creek through silver-beech forest beside a mountain stream, then brings you back to camp. It is a pleasant leg-stretch and picnic break, not a long hike. The nearby Haast River is another option if fishing is part of your trip.
Pleasant Flat is an alluvial floodplain of the Haast River, roughly 500 metres across and more than a kilometre long. The valley was carved by an arm of the Landsborough Glacier during the last Ice Age, leaving a wide open floor beneath the surrounding forested mountains. Before the highway crossed Haast Pass, travellers used small huts at nearby Burke Flat; the bridge at Pleasant Flat made this a natural roadside stopping place.
Toilets and a picnic shelter with tables serve the campground. A tap is reported, but its water is untreated, so bring drinking water or treat it before use. Fires are not allowed and dogs are not permitted. Sandflies are the main drawback; pack repellent and clothes that cover your skin, especially if you plan to sit outside.
Wildlife
60 sightingsKeaMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
112 sightingsRockwrenMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
26 sightingsYellowheadMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
13 sightingsTūīMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
27 sightingsBellbirdMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
35 sightingsRiflemanMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Aspiring. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyPleasant Flat Walk0.2 km · 5 min · At the trailheadA quick forest walk beside a mountain stream
EasyThunder Creek Falls Walk0.2 km · 9 min · 3 km awayA sealed path ends above Haast River, facing a 28 m waterfall.
ChallengingWills Valley Track15 km · 11 hr · 3 km awayAn unstable gorge approach leads to a remote four-bunk hut.
EasyFantail Falls Walk0.2 km · 5 min · 7.2 km awayA five-minute return walk to a fan-shaped waterfall.
ChallengingBrewster Track5.6 km · 7 hr · 7.3 km awayA steep alpine climb to a hut above the Haast River
Sight · 3.1 km awayGates of HaastBlue-green rapids under a narrow truss bridge make a quick stop.
Sight · 3.1 km awayThunder Creek FallsA five-minute forest walk to a 28 m waterfall.Lodging · 6.9 km awayWills HutFour bunks at the end of a demanding valley tramp
Sight · 7.4 km awayFantail FallsA five-minute walk to a 23 m fan-shaped waterfall.Parkwolf’s Mount Aspiring ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
