New Zealand 
In numbers.
162m
Height
0.15m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Sep–Dec
Best months
238kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Bowen Falls, month by month
It roars from May to February.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 0.2 m³/sJan
- 0.1 m³/sFeb
- 0.1 m³/sMar
- 0.1 m³/sApr
- 0.2 m³/sMay
- 0.2 m³/sJun
- 0.2 m³/sJul
- 0.1 m³/sAug
- 0.2 m³/sSep
- 0.2 m³/sOct
- 0.2 m³/sNov
- 0.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.09 m³/s in the lowest month to 0.24 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from September to December.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in New Zealand
Bowen Falls is a coastal waterfall in New Zealand. The water falls 162 m. It lies within Fiordland National Park.
Getting there.
- Parking 400 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Queenstown Airport (ZQN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 76 km in a straight lineCar hire at ZQN airport (Queenstown)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From September to Decemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
238 kW
About 0.15 m³/s falling 162 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 60 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 373 m in 1.7 km.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsMilford Sound and 3 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 8car parks
- —swimming spots
- 5picnic sites
- 5toilets
- 13information boards and visitor centres
- 2bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmCamp Oven Falls
- —caves
- 1campsitesRainforest Campervan Park
- 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMitre Peak Lodge, Milford Sound Lodge
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 18 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 17 |
| Night °C | 11 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 201 | 154 | 164 | 158 | 192 | 169 | 166 | 155 | 193 | 195 | 178 | 202 |
| Wet days | 18 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 18 | 19 |
| Sun h/day | 7.3 | 7.5 | 6.1 | 5.1 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 5.4 | 6.4 | 6.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (167 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 60% | 153% | 88% | 124% | 75% | 63% | 144% | 104% | 162% | 124% | 62% | 97% |
| 2021 | 135% | 48% | 89% | 116% | 97% | 118% | 142% | 133% | 127% | 86% | 108% | 106% |
| 2022 | 28% | 165% | 37% | 83% | 69% | 133% | 86% | 156% | 60% | 75% | 91% | 47% |
| 2023 | 25% | 103% | 149% | 80% | 173% | 78% | 90% | 99% | 140% | 97% | 86% | 108% |
| 2024 | 152% | 126% | 124% | 173% | 35% | 80% | 68% | 145% | 188% | 148% | 128% | 108% |
| 2025 | 38% | 48% | 77% | 94% | 92% | 80% | 52% | 85% | 191% | 210% | 131% | 110% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Bowen Falls
New Zealand
- 162 mHeight
- 0.15 m³/sAverage flow
- Sep–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q15091803) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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