Kahurangi National Park

Kahurangi covers about 5,200 square kilometres of the north-west South Island and its defining feature is geology: much of it is marble and limestone laid down as sea floor and then lifted, so the park is riddled with caves, shafts and underground rivers, including some of the deepest cave systems in the southern hemisphere. Above ground that rock produces distinctive landscapes - the marble karst of Mount Owen and Mount Arthur, tussock tablelands, and river valleys running to the West Coast. Botanically it is the richest park in the country, holding somewhere over half of New Zealand's plant species, including a number found nowhere else. The Heaphy Track crosses it as a Great Walk; the Wangapeka and Leslie-Karamea are longer and harder. Great spotted kiwi are present in numbers, and giant land snails live in the wet forest. Access is from many road ends, most unsealed, and there is no through road.

History

Māori settled the Kahurangi coast from around 1380, and the Anaweka waka found near the park's western boundary, built as early as 1226, is one of only two long-distance voyaging canoes known to survive. Sealers came first among Europeans, the New Zealand Company's Nelson settlement followed in 1841, Thomas Salisbury's claim of gold on the Tableland in 1863 set off a rush, and the park was gazetted in 1996 (Wikipedia, Kahurangi National Park).

What you'll find

• The marble karst - Mount Owen and Mount Arthur, caves and shafts.
• The plant diversity - over half the country's species in one park.
• The Heaphy Track - the Great Walk crossing to the West Coast.
• Great spotted kiwi - present in numbers through the park.

When to go

November to April. Book Heaphy huts well ahead. Longer routes need real tramping experience and river-crossing judgement.

What to expect

There is no through road and access points are far apart on unsealed roads. Caves are for experienced cavers only - several are extremely dangerous. Weather on the tablelands changes fast. Sandflies on the western side.

Nearby

Golden Bay and Takaka are north; Karamea and the West Coast are south-west.

Key facts