Elgin Falls

About Elgin Falls

Elgin Falls performs for the railway: this slender, twenty-five-metre bridal veil spills off the high pastures near Ambewela within sight of the Main Line's uppermost curves, and generations of train travellers between Pattipola and Great Western have known it only as a lovely white flicker past the window. Stopping rewards the flicker: a short path from the estate road reaches the base, where the fall - named, in the hill country's habit, for a Scottish earl's estate - drops in lace over black rock with 'Little New Zealand's' improbable dairy pastures rolling above. It is a small waterfall by the island's standards and knows it; the pleasure is the ensemble - altitude light, wind in the eucalyptus, a Friesian audience, and every so often the blue train easing past above the lip, completing the postcard from both directions. Fold it into the Ambewela–Pattipola high loop with the farms and the summit stations.

Top Activities

• ✓The short path to the base
• ✓Train-past-the-falls photography
• ✓The Ambewela high-pastures loop
• ✓Combine with Pattipola and the farms
• ✓Cool-climate picnicking

Nearby Attractions

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