Fantail Falls is a waterfall in

Mount Aspiring National Park Mount Aspiring National Park is in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, north of Fiordland National Park, situated in Otago and Westland regions. The park forms part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. Geography Estab ...

Westland District Westland District is a territorial authority district on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is administered by the Westland District Council. The district's population is History Westland was originally a part of Canterbury P ...

, New Zealand. The waterfall is in the

Haast Pass Haast Pass / Tioripatea is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. Māori used the pass in pre-European times. The pass takes its name from Julius von Haast, a 19th-century explorer who also served as provincial ...

, between the

Gates of Haast The Gates of Haast is a gorge on the Haast River in Mount Aspiring National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located inland by road from the township of Haast and from the summit of Haast Pass. The Gates of Haast has sheer ro ...

and the pass itself, at an altitude of . It marks where Fantail Creek enters the

Haast River The Haast River / Awarua is a river on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The Māori name for the river is Awarua. It drains the western watershed of the Haast Pass. The Haast River is in length, and enters the Tasman Sea n ...

, with a drop of . Its name derives from the way it spreads out into the shape of a fan at its base, rather than any similarity to the tail of the native bird known as the fantail (pīwakawaka or '' Rhipidura fuliginosa''). For many years, beginning in the late 1930s, the waterfall had a

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

plant at its base, which provided power for roadwork machinery being used to construct a road from

Makarora Makarora is a small community within the Queenstown-Lakes District of the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on on the eastern side of the Haast Pass and adjacent to the Makarora River. Local tourism operators o ...

to Jackson Bay. The road was commissioned by the

Ministry of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

and was the first road over the

. It was not completed until 1960. A 5-minute wheelchair-accessible bush walk leads to the riverbank opposite the waterfall from a carpark on State Highway 6. In addition, a steep walk to the Brewster Hut, serviced by the Department of Conservation, starts at the base of the falls. The walk to the falls passes through almost pure silver beech ('' Lophozonia menziesii'') forest, as these falls are at a higher altitude than the other Haast Pass waterfalls, Roaring Billy Falls (80 m above sea level) and Thunder Creek Falls (110 m), which are set in mixed beech/podocarp forest. Underneath the beech canopy the forest floor is dominated by prickly shield fern ('' Polystichum vestitum''), horopito (''

Pseudowintera colorata ''Pseudowintera colorata'', also known as mountain horopito or pepper tree, is a species of woody evergreen flowering trees and shrubs, part of family Winteraceae. The species is endemic to New Zealand. All Winteraceae are magnoliids, associated ...

''), and broadleaf (''

Griselinia littoralis ''Griselinia littoralis'', commonly known as kapuka, New Zealand broadleaf or pāpāuma, is a fast-growing small to medium-sized evergreen tree that is native to New Zealand. Description ''Griselinia littoralis'' is a hardy evergreen shrub th ...

'').

References

External links

Fantail Falls walk
Department of Conservation website
Fantail Falls
on the World of Waterfalls website {{Authority control Waterfalls of New Zealand Mount Aspiring National Park Westland District Landforms of the West Coast, New Zealand