New Zealand 
In numbers.
0.97m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Aug–Nov
Best months
560m
Elevation
The water at Sharplin Falls, month by month
It roars from April to December.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 0.8 m³/sJan
- 0.5 m³/sFeb
- 0.5 m³/sMar
- 0.9 m³/sApr
- 1.3 m³/sMay
- 1.3 m³/sJun
- 1.2 m³/sJul
- 1.4 m³/sAug
- 1.4 m³/sSep
- 1.5 m³/sOct
- 1.3 m³/sNov
- 1.2 m³/sDec
From about 0.47 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.5 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from August to November.
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.
Getting there.
- Methvennearest town · 19 km in a straight line
- Parking 760 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Timaru Airport (TIU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 77 km in a straight lineCar hire at CHC airport (Christchurch)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From August to Novemberbest 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 244 m in 3.5 km. Here the river runs about 130 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 1viewpointsSharplin Falls Lookout
- —waymarked walking routes
- 2car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 1information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 1campsitesTaylors Stream
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —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).
Towns nearby
- Methven19 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 21 | 21 | 18 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 16 | 19 |
| Night °C | 9 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 87 | 74 | 78 | 93 | 98 | 97 | 86 | 86 | 76 | 100 | 90 | 101 |
| Wet days | 14 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 16 |
| Sun h/day | 8.5 | 8.3 | 7.3 | 6.0 | 4.6 | 3.9 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 6.5 | 7.4 | 8.1 | 8.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 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 (560 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 | 46% | 112% | 112% | 89% | 68% | 98% | 100% | 94% | 127% | 118% | 111% | 116% |
| 2021 | 121% | 47% | 114% | 90% | 159% | 106% | 116% | 135% | 128% | 105% | 111% | 170% |
| 2022 | 45% | 283% | 46% | 55% | 121% | 135% | 328% | 161% | 87% | 95% | 162% | 79% |
| 2023 | 86% | 157% | 196% | 139% | 186% | 77% | 158% | 86% | 149% | 87% | 73% | 113% |
| 2024 | 130% | 81% | 70% | 83% | 50% | 92% | 95% | 164% | 152% | 169% | 92% | 145% |
| 2025 | 88% | 60% | 88% | 180% | 111% | 134% | 98% | 69% | 131% | 148% | 83% | 104% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Sharplin Falls
New Zealand
- —Height
- 0.97 m³/sAverage flow
- Aug–NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q34758479) · 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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