#4 of 18 sights in Mount Aspiring
Sight · Mount Aspiring National Park
A five-minute forest walk to a 28 m waterfall.
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
Thunder Creek Falls“Up ahead is Thunder Creek Falls, a stop I'd keep if you only want a few minutes out of the car.”
Plays as you drive up to Thunder Creek Falls 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
Thunder Creek Falls is a 28 m waterfall where Thunder Creek drops into the Haast River. From the roadside car park on SH6, 50 km south of Haast, it is a 200 m return walk taking about five minutes on an easy sealed path through kāmahi and silver beech to a viewing platform. It is an easy stop to add to a Haast Pass drive, though the view is from across the river rather than from the falls’ base.
The platform looks across the Haast River to the full white cascade. For a photo, keep some of the river in the foreground: it connects the narrow drop to the larger valley and gives the falls scale. Some visitors report sandflies here; repellent or long sleeves can help when insects are active.
Thunder Creek Falls sits at the outlet of a hanging valley shaped by the former Haast Glacier. The Haast River has also cut a canyon through the bedrock below; the waterfall marks the height change where the smaller creek meets the main valley.
The nearest toilets listed by DOC are at Pleasant Flat Campsite, 5 km north on SH6. Dogs are not permitted, and drone flights on conservation land require a permit.
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
EasyThunder Creek Falls Walk0.2 km · 9 min · 0.1 km awayA sealed path ends above Haast River, facing a 28 m waterfall.
ChallengingWills Valley Track15 km · 11 hr · 1.1 km awayAn unstable gorge approach leads to a remote four-bunk hut.
EasyPleasant Flat Walk0.2 km · 5 min · 3.1 km awayA quick forest walk beside a mountain stream
EasyFantail Falls Walk0.2 km · 5 min · 4.7 km awayA five-minute return walk to a fan-shaped waterfall.
ChallengingBrewster Track5.6 km · 7 hr · 4.7 km awayA steep alpine climb to a hut above the Haast River
ModerateHaast Pass Lookout Track1.5 km · 1 hr · 7.8 km awayA short climb to a timber-railed Southern Alps lookout.
EasyBridle Track3.5 km · 1.5 hr · 7.8 km awayWalk a graded stretch of the old Otago to Westland route
Sight · 1.2 km awayGates of HaastBlue-green rapids under a narrow truss bridge make a quick stop.
Campground · 3.1 km awayPleasant Flat CampsiteOpen camping, a short stream walk, and Mount Hooker on the skyline.
Sight · 4.8 km awayFantail FallsA five-minute walk to a 23 m fan-shaped waterfall.
Lodging · 6.7 km awayBrewster HutA 12-bunk alpine hut at the end of a steep climb.Lodging · 7.4 km awayWills HutFour bunks at the end of a demanding valley trampSight · 7.7 km awayHaast Pass LookoutA steep climb buys a higher view over Haast Pass.Parkwolf’s Mount Aspiring ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
