New Zealand 
In numbers.
3.0m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Sep–Dec
Best months
151m
Elevation
The water at Giant Gate Falls, month by month
It roars from May to February.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 3.8 m³/sJan
- 2.1 m³/sFeb
- 1.8 m³/sMar
- 1.8 m³/sApr
- 3.5 m³/sMay
- 3.3 m³/sJun
- 3.3 m³/sJul
- 3.0 m³/sAug
- 4.3 m³/sSep
- 4.7 m³/sOct
- 3.9 m³/sNov
- 4.0 m³/sDec
From about 1.8 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.7 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.
Summit in New Zealand
Giant Gate Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand. It lies within Fiordland National Park.
Getting there.
- Queenstown Airport (ZQN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 79 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.
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 187 m in 2.7 km.
What is around.
- 1viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesGW - 07 Milford Track
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 1toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmCamp Oven Falls
- —caves
- —campsites
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMitre Peak Lodge
- —restaurants 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 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 18 |
| Night °C | 11 | 12 | 11 | 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 (151 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.
Giant Gate Falls
New Zealand
- —Height
- 3.0 m³/sAverage flow
- Sep–DecBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q31697189) · 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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