The Haast Pass drive: stops, walks and where to stay

Where Haast is, and what you will find there

Haast sits at the southern end of the West Coast road, roughly halfway between Wānaka (140 km over the pass) and Fox Glacier (120 km up the coast). There are three parts to it. Haast Junction, by the river bridge, has the Department of Conservation visitor centre. The township, 3 km south, has the food store, fuel, a couple of places to eat and most of the beds. Haast Beach and the road to Jackson Bay run on south from there.

What there is not: a supermarket, a bank branch, or much open after dark. The nearest supermarkets are in Wānaka and a small one in Franz Josef. Mobile coverage only reached the township in 2018, and it is still patchy on the pass and along the coast. Fill up with fuel before you cross, either in Wānaka or at Haast, because between Haast and Fox the choice is limited.

The place takes its name from Julius von Haast, the Canterbury provincial geologist whose expedition crossed the pass to the coast in January 1863. The Māori name of the river is Awarua, and the pass is Tioripatea. Ngāi Tahu used this route between Lake Wānaka and the coast long before any road, and the coast was worked for pounamu for centuries before that.

The Haast Pass drive and the stops worth making

At 562 m, the Haast Pass is the lowest road crossing of the Southern Alps, and it does not feel like a mountain pass for most of its length. From Wānaka the road runs along Lake Hāwea and the head of Lake Wānaka to Makarora, then climbs gently through beech forest to the saddle and drops steeply down the Haast River valley on the west side, the forest getting denser and wetter as you go. The road over the top opened in 1960, and the link north to the rest of the West Coast only in 1965, which is why this corner still feels a long way from anywhere.

Almost everything worth stopping for is a few minutes from the road, and the Department of Conservation keeps the tracks well. In order from Wānaka:

• Blue Pools, near Makarora: about half an hour each way through silver beech to two swing bridges over clear, deep blue water in the Makarora River. The best walk on the road, and the busiest.
• Gates of Haast: a bridge over a narrow gorge where the river smashes through boulders, just below the summit on the west side. You see it from the road.
• Fantail Falls: five minutes return, a fan of water over a rock face across the river. Pleasant Flat, nearby, has a picnic shelter and a view of Mount Hooker.
• Thunder Creek Falls: five minutes return on a wheelchair-friendly path to a 28 m waterfall dropping straight down a cliff. Like all the falls here, it is best after rain.
• Roaring Billy Falls: 25 minutes return through old podocarp forest to the braided bed of the Haast River and a cascade coming in from the far side.

Most of our coach itineraries make two or three of these stops, usually Blue Pools or Thunder Creek and one of the smaller falls, and reach the glaciers in time for dinner. Our guide to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers picks up where this road ends, and the road trip routes guide shows where the pass fits in a full South Island loop.

The coast north of Haast: Ship Creek, Knights Point and the penguins

The first hour north of Haast is some of the finest coastal driving in the country, and people in a hurry for the glaciers tend to miss it. The DOC stops, from south to north:

• Ship Creek / Tauparikaka: two short walks from one car park. The Dune Lake Walk is a 30 minute loop over the dunes to a lookout above a lake and the coast south to Jackson Head; the Kahikatea Swamp Forest Walk is 20 minutes return among kahikatea, New Zealand's tallest native tree.
• Knights Point: a roadside viewpoint over cliffs, rock stacks and surf, with seals often visible at Arnott Point below.
• Monro Beach: 1 hour 20 minutes return through coastal forest to a remote beach where tawaki, the Fiordland crested penguin, come ashore. Your best chance is from August to November, early morning or late afternoon. Keep well back and do not block their path up the beach.
• Lake Moeraki: a forest lake about 30 km north of Haast, with a wilderness lodge on its shore.

South to Jackson Bay, and on the rivers

South of the township the road runs past Haast Beach, Okuru and Neils Beach to Jackson Bay, the end of the West Coast road and a small fishing settlement with a wharf. Europeans tried to settle here in the 1870s and mostly failed; the Arawhata pioneer cemetery, now swallowed by forest, is what is left. At the bay, the Wharekai Te Kou Walk crosses to the rocky shore of Ocean Beach in 40 minutes return, and the Hapuka Estuary Walk on the way is a 20 minute loop with boardwalks over the tidal flats. It is a quiet, strange, lovely road, and a good half day if you are staying in Haast.

On the water, jet boat trips run from the coast up one of the glacier-fed rivers into the mountains, and helicopter flights leave from Haast for the ranges of Mount Aspiring National Park. Both depend on the weather, so keep your plans loose.

How to get to Haast, and driving the pass

There is no public transport to speak of beyond the long-distance coaches, so Haast is reached by car or on a tour. The pass is a good road but a demanding one in places: steep and narrow around the summit, one-lane bridges on the coast, and a long way between towns in either direction.

Slips close the pass from time to time after heavy rain, occasionally for days, and snow can close the summit briefly in winter. Check the NZ Transport Agency journey planner on the morning you cross, especially from May to October. There is not much to do if you get caught at Haast by a closure except wait, which is one more argument for having a bed booked.

Weather, and whether to stay the night

Haast gets around 3,100 mm of rain a year, and it can rain hard at any season. The upside is that the waterfalls on the pass are at their best on a wet day, and the coast is mild, rarely frosty. Summer is the busiest time on the road, spring brings the penguins at Monro Beach, and autumn is often the most settled. Winter is quiet, with snow on the tops and the odd day when the pass is shut.

Is Haast worth a night? If you are on a coach tour, you will be driven through, and you will still see the best of the pass. If you are driving yourself, we think yes: the drive from Wānaka to the glaciers is long with the stops, and splitting it here gives you the coast, Jackson Bay and a morning at Monro Beach. Accommodation is simple: a hotel, motels, a holiday park and a few lodges and cabins scattered along the coast, some on the lakes north of town. Book ahead in summer, because there are not many beds and the nearest alternatives are an hour or more away. To see the trips that cross the pass, browse the Haast tours, and the Wānaka page covers the other end of the road.