Walking in-between the towering pinnacles of Omarama Clay Cliffs feels like you’ve suddenly been transported to Utah or maybe onto a movie set! It’s unlike any other landscape we’ve seen in New Zealand and a must visit when driving between Queenstown and Christchurch.
The scenery is stunning and it’s an easy walk to see the cliffs. However, if you want to walk amongst them, then things get a little more adventurous. There’s no set path and there is some scree to negotiate.
We’re sharing everything you need to know about visiting the gorgeous Omarama Clay Cliffs.
Visiting the Omarama Clay Cliffs
Know before you go
The most important thing to know before visiting the clay cliffs is that they are on private land. Entry is currently $5 per car, or $20 per bus.
You need to leave the money in a donation box, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t get caught out with no cash! The money goes towards maintaining the road and is great value considering how amazing the scenery is.
The walk to the clay cliffs
From the car park there is a path that runs for 500m (each way) along the outside of the clay cliffs. This is wide and in good condition. It’s pretty flat and offers fabulous views of the jagged cliff walls.
We were visiting in November when the lupins were out in full force, which added an extra something special to the scenery (we know they are weeds, but they have to be the prettiest weeds on earth!).
If you only want to see the outside of the cliffs you can do this walk in flip flops/jandals with no problems. However, if you want to venture into the cliffs, definitely bring shoes with a bit of grip.
Although the real wow factor for me was walking amongst the cliffs, it’s still worth coming to see them from the outside if you don’t like the sound of the terrain further along.
Exploring the cliffs - the side trail
There are two points at which you can enter the cliffs, one allows you to walk just a little way in (the side trail) and one quite a bit further - although neither route is actually very long.
The side trail off the main path is on your right, less than a minute from the car park. This narrow trail only takes a few minutes and is very stable. It heads slightly uphill, but the terrain is pretty good and I didn’t find it slippery at all.
It allows you to see some great rock formations closer up and is definitely worth a quick peek.
Heading into the main part of the Omarama Clay Cliffs
The best part of the cliffs are accessed from the end of the main path, which heads steeply uphill without a set trail.
Heading up is not too difficult, but be mindful that whatever you go up you have to get down, and it’s definitely a lot harder on the way down!
The terrain is basically like scree. Some people will run down gleefully, and some will be more like me, picking their way down and hoping not to skid!
It’s very much worth heading uphill even just a little bit though, as that’s when you feel like you’re really inside a canyon, with the huge walls towering over you. It took us right back to Utah!
You’ll see two possible routes once you’ve passed through the little slot between the initial cliff walls (just beyond the main path).
The path on the right quickly becomes a dead end, but is worth seeing. The one on the left allows you to go a bit further and offers an incredible view, but does feel a bit more sketchy. Both trails lead to a small piece of flat ground which offer a beautiful view of the cliffs and out to the distant mountains beyond.
You could climb a lot higher than we did, but even going partway up was enough for me as I knew I wouldn’t love coming down again!
I found it easiest to head down on the far right as it was a shallower gradient.
It’s a truly fantastic landscape and definitely worth the short walk along the scree - and I know some people will love the scree, kids in particular!
All up, the section we walked was 1.3km (650m each way).
The best time to visit the clay cliffs
We couldn’t believe how popular the clay cliffs were! They were one of the busiest places we visited on the South Island, which we really hadn’t been expecting. If you want to get them to yourself, you’ll want to come early or late in the day.
Most people visit as part of a longer journey so the middle of the day is when it’s busiest. Having said that, people do spread out a bit as there’s no set path, so it doesn’t feel as busy when you’re there as you fear it will be when you see how many cars are in the car park!
Getting to the Omarama Clay Cliffs
The clay cliffs are located 20km and roughly a 25 minute drive from Omarama. They are roughly 2 hours 20 from Queenstown, 1 hour 40 from Wanaka and 4 hours from Christchurch. They are a short detour from the highway when travelling between Christchurch/Tekapo/Twizel and Wanaka or Queenstown.
The last 8km of the road to the car park is gravel. It has a few corrugations early on but is generally well graded and doesn’t require any special clearance. We drove in a tiny car and just took it slowly.
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