Te Wahipounamu

Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	New Zealand
Includes	Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, Fiordland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park, Westland Tai Poutini National Park
Criteria	vii, viii, ix, x
Reference	551
Coordinates	45°02′10″S 167°19′12″E / 45.036°S 167.32°E / -45.036; 167.32
Inscription	1990 (14th Session)
Location of Te Wahipounamu
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Te Wāhipounamu (Māori for "the place of greenstone") is a World Heritage Site in the south west corner of the South Island of New Zealand.

Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990 and covering 26,000 km², the site incorporates four national parks:

It is thought to contain some of the best modern representations of the original flora and fauna of Gondwana, one of the reasons for its listing as a World Heritage site.

Te Wahipounamu stretches 280 miles along the western coastline of the South Island of New Zealand. The elevation of this land area ranges from sea level to 12,349 feet at Aoraki/Mt. Cook. In some places it extends inland as far as 56 miles. Within Te Wahipounamu there is a multitude of natural features including snow-capped peaks, sapphire lakes, waterfalls, fjords, and valleys. It is also home to hundreds of the world’s most active glaciers, but the main two are Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. It is the largest and least modified area of New Zealand’s natural ecosystem. And as such, the flora and fauna of the area is the world’s best modern representation of the ancient biota of Gondwanaland.

The vegetation in Te Wahipounamu is diverse and in essentially in pristine condition. On the mountains there is a rich alpine vegetation of shrubs, tussocks and herbs. The warmer and lower altitude rainforests are dominated by tall podocarps. There are more rainforests and wetlands in the west, and the most extensive and least modified natural freshwater wetlands in New Zealand are found in this area. The Westland coastal plain is characterized by its high-fertility swamps and low-fertility peat bogs.

Te Wahipounamu is home to many indigenous animals and contains the largest and most significant population of forest birds in the country. The total wild population, which is only about 170 birds, of the takahe is found in a few mountain valleys in the Fiordland harbor. Along the south-west coast, most of New Zealand’s Fur Seals are found. Also found in this region are Southern Brown Kiwis, Great Spotted Kiwis, Red deer, Yellow-crowned parakeets, Fiordland Penguins, New Zealand falcons, and the pateke/Fiordland brown teal. The world’s rarest and heaviest parrot, kakapo, was found in this region until the early 1980s. It is now believed that it is extinct on the mainland.