New Zealand 
In numbers.
1.1m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Oct–Jan
Best months
146m
Elevation
The water at Mackay Falls, month by month
It runs all year.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 1.7 m³/sJan
- 1.0 m³/sFeb
- 0.7 m³/sMar
- 0.7 m³/sApr
- 1.3 m³/sMay
- 1.1 m³/sJun
- 1.0 m³/sJul
- 0.8 m³/sAug
- 1.3 m³/sSep
- 1.6 m³/sOct
- 1.4 m³/sNov
- 1.5 m³/sDec
From about 0.65 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.7 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from October to January.
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 Fiordland, New Zealand
Mackay Falls is a waterfall in New Zealand.
Getting there.
- Queenstown Airport (ZQN)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 81 km in a straight lineCar hire at ZQN airport (Queenstown)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From October to Januarybest 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 295 m in 2.7 km. Here the river runs about 145 m below the lower rim of its valley.
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
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 1hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmDumpling Hut
- —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 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| Night °C | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 240 | 184 | 191 | 181 | 214 | 180 | 179 | 171 | 208 | 222 | 202 | 230 |
| Wet days | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 22 | 19 | 20 |
| Sun h/day | 6.8 | 6.5 | 5.4 | 4.4 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 4.9 | 5.8 | 6.8 | 7.2 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (146 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 | 63% | 145% | 88% | 123% | 77% | 62% | 139% | 100% | 168% | 127% | 68% | 104% |
| 2021 | 129% | 53% | 86% | 116% | 92% | 128% | 145% | 127% | 131% | 85% | 112% | 102% |
| 2022 | 32% | 150% | 38% | 78% | 68% | 114% | 75% | 148% | 54% | 68% | 78% | 47% |
| 2023 | 24% | 91% | 133% | 77% | 164% | 82% | 101% | 103% | 140% | 94% | 93% | 113% |
| 2024 | 155% | 139% | 129% | 160% | 38% | 94% | 66% | 145% | 190% | 151% | 134% | 111% |
| 2025 | 37% | 50% | 84% | 89% | 88% | 74% | 50% | 89% | 193% | 201% | 137% | 116% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Mackay Falls
New Zealand
- —Height
- 1.1 m³/sAverage flow
- Oct–JanBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q32250152) · 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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