Sutherland Falls is the fifth highest mountain waterfall in the world. It lies 16 miles (26 kilometers) from the head of Milford Sound, in the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana of New Zealand’s South Island. Its waters plunge down a mountainside in three leaps from a height of 1,904 feet (580 meters). The first leap is 815 feet (248 meters); the second, 751 feet (229 meters); and the third, 338 feet (103 meters). Water from melting glaciers forms the falls. The waters eventually flow into Milford Sound. The falls are named after the Scottish explorer Donald Sutherland, who is thought to have discovered the falls in the 1880’s.
