Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Miners also had a hand in developing the Karamea Track, progressing from gold diggings
at Mt Arthur Tableland to the river. By 1878 a benched track had been formed, and diggers
were active in the Leslie, Crow and Roaring Lion Valleys.
The Heaphy was improved when JB Saxon surveyed and graded the track in 1888 for the
Collingwood County Council. Gold deposits were never found, though, and use of the
Heaphy and Wangapeka Tracks declined considerably in the early 1900s.
After the Northwest Nelson Forest Park (which was to become Kahurangi National Park)
was established in 1970, the two tracks were improved dramatically, and the New Zealand
Forest Service began to bench the routes and construct huts. The Heaphy Track did not be-
come really popular, though, until plans for a road from Collingwood to Karamea were an-
nounced in the early 1970s. Conservationists, deeply concerned about the damage the road
would do to the environment - especially to nikau palms - began an intensive campaign to
stop the work going ahead, and to increase the popularity of the track.
Environment
Kahurangi is the most diverse of NZ's national parks, in landforms and in flora and fauna.
Its most eye-catching features are arguably its rock formations, ranging from windswept
beaches and sea cliffs to earthquake-shattered slopes and moraine-dammed lakes, and the
smooth, strange karst forms of the interior tableland.
There's plenty of room in between for bush to flourish. Around 85% of the park is fores-
ted, with beech prevalent, along with rimu and other podocarps particularly on the lower
slopes in the western fringes. These fringes have an understorey of broad-leaved trees and
ferns, climbers and perching plants. In all, more than 50% of all NZ's plant species can be
found in the park, including more than 80% of its alpine plant species.
This ecological wonderment is not just confined to plants, with 60 native bird species flit-
ting about in the confines, including the great spotted kiwi (ambling, rather than flitting),
kea, kaka and whio (blue duck). There are rather unattractive cave weta sharing a home with
various weird beetles and a huge, leggy spider, and a majestic and ancient snail known as
Powelliphanta - something of a (slow) flag bearer for the park's animal kingdom.
If you like a field trip filled with plenty that's new and strange, Kahurangi National Park
will make you very happy.
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Planning
WHEN TO TRAMP
