Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Tararua Tramping Club, the first such club in NZ, was formed in 1919 by Wellington
trampers keen to promote trips into the range. Independent trampers had been visiting the
range since the 1880s.
When the New Zealand Forest Service was established in 1919, a move began to reserve
a section of the Tararua Range, but it was not until 1952 that the government set aside the
area as NZ's first forest park. It was gazetted in 1967 and now covers 1165 sq km.
Environment
The sediments that would later form the Tararua Range were laid in a deep-sea basin 200
million years ago. Earth movements along a series of faults that extended through the Upper
Hutt Valley and the Wellington region then resulted in a complicated uplifted mass of folded
and faulted rock. This mass was subsequently eroded by wind, rain and ice, resulting in the
rugged Tararuas.
There are a good variety of plants in the park, and many species reach their southern lim-
its here. Cover is predominantly verdant rainforest, and podocarp tawa and kamahi forest in
the lowlands scattered with rimu and northern rata. Silver beech is the species along the
bushline in the south, while above 1200m the forest gives way to open alpine tussock, snow
grass and herb fields.
The Tararuas were one of the last known refuges of the huia, with the last official sighting
recorded in 1903 on the Mt Holdsworth Track. Clearing of lowland forest habitats and pred-
ation by introduced pests have also meant the disappearance of whio, kiwi, North Island
robin and kokako from the range. But there are still plenty of birds in the park: on the river
flats you're likely to encounter honking paradise shelducks, while in the forests there are
riflemen, grey warblers, tomtits and whiteheads, all easier to hear than spot.
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