Sutherland Falls


Sutherland Falls is a waterfall near Milford Sound in New Zealand's South Island. At 580 metres the falls were long believed to be the tallest waterfall in New Zealand. Terror Falls, in the Poseidon Valley, are 750m, and Browne Falls cascades 843 metres down a mountainside in Doubtful Sound, leading some to view that as the tallest.
The water falls from Lake Quill in three cascades: the upper is 229 m tall, the middle is 248 m, and the lower is 103 m tall. A vertical fall of 580 m is made over 480 m of horizontal distance, thus the mean grade of falls is approximately 56 degrees.
The base of Sutherland Falls is a 90 minutes walk from Quintin Public Shelter on the Milford Track.

History

Sutherland Falls was first discovered by a Scottish settler, Donald Sutherland, in 1880. He initially claimed the falls were over tall, which would have made them the highest in the world by far. Later surveys showed that this claim was significantly inflated, and they have been confirmed to actually be tall.
Lake Quill, which forms the source of the falls, was named for the explorer who first climbed up the cliff face to find it in 1890.