About Hidden Falls
Hidden Falls was a waterfall that I really was torn about visiting because I knew that it was pretty far into the Hollyford Track.
I wondered whether the waterfall would be worth the trouble since most people who would bother to hike on the Hollyford Track tended to overnight at the Hidden Falls Hut before going further north as part of the multi-day (4 or 5 days) tramp.
So as you can see from the photo above, I ultimately decided to go ahead and drag Julie along on the long out-and-back day hike to see this gushing 20-25m waterfall.
Upon visiting the falls, we figured out that it was probably aptly named because it really did seem to be hidden from view of the Hollyford Track.
Still, it took us about 5-6 hours of hiking overall to cover the 10-12km return distance, and I suppose we figured that with the rainy weather, we didn’t have anything to lose by going ahead with this hike.
After all, most of the other sights would have been socked in by the low clouds and the heavy rain.
The irony was that the time spent alone on this track actually chilled us out and we even managed to wait out the bad weather as it started to clear when we were finishing up with the hike.
Funny how Nature works that way sometimes…
Hiking to Hidden Falls
Our visit started by the trailhead for the famed Hollyford Track (see directions below).
After donning our rain ponchos and waterproof pants, we then crossed the first swinging bridge and would ultimately walk alongside the east side of the Hollyford River for the next few hours.
All throughout the hike, we were treated to lush rainforest, other unnamed waterfalls, and even a few vistas of surrounding peaks here and there.
Given the flat yet damp nature of this hike, I swore the experience was almost reminiscent of our Milford Track experience when we were hiking through similar terrain in the Arthur Valley after the detour to Sutherland Falls.
After nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes of hiking, we finally arrived at the spur track following Hidden Creek.
This spur track was just in front of the swinging bridge traversing Hidden Creek so we didn’t have to cross it.
After a few minutes along the spur track, we ultimately got closer to the bombardment of mist from Hidden Falls.
Its gushing waters would crash into the turbulent plunge pool then funnel its mist out towards us as the confines of the gorge constricted where the mist could go.
So as we tried to improve our views of Hidden Falls, we really had to contend with muddy terrain as well as extremely slippery rocks (at least slippery enough for me to take a pretty nasty spill on one occasion).
Once we positioned ourselves to take photos, we had to settle for very hasty photos given the swirling mist conspiring to ruin our cameras.
Perhaps with the recent rains, it really swelled up the volume of this waterfall.
I’d imagine that Hidden Falls was a case where less would be more.
After all, I had seen photos of this falls in the literature in much calmer conditions where its plunge pool would actually show a bold green-blue colour instead of the white frothing mess we saw during our visit on Christmas Day in 2009.
When we had our fill of the Hidden Falls, we hastily made our way back to the car park, which strangely enough took us nearly as much time as on the way there (2 hours and 30 minutes).
And like I said earlier, the weather had improved significantly so we were even starting to get pretty hot and sweaty from the waterproof pants and rain ponchos as the sun started coming out.
At least the one good thing about us constantly moving along in this hike was that it always seemed like we kept outmaneuvering the pesky sandflies.
Authorities
Hidden Falls resides in Fiordland National Park near Te Anau in the Fiordland region of South Island, New Zealand. It is administered under the jurisdiction of the Department of Conservation. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website.
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