Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The first European explorers through the area were probably Charles Heaphy and Thomas
Brunner, who were led by Maori guide Kehu on a five-month journey down the coast in
1846. They passed a group of Maori heading north, but the first settlement seen was
Kararoa, 20km south of Punakaiki.
Heaphy was greatly impressed by the Paparoa region, devoting 12 pages of his diary to it.
He also wrote about 'incessant rain', delays caused by swollen rivers, and of climbing rot-
ting rata and flax ladders up the steep cliffs of Perpendicular Point. Later that year Brunner
and Kehu returned to the area. It was an epic journey, lasting 18 months, in which they com-
pletely circumnavigated the Paparoa Range, traced the Buller River from source to mouth
and travelled as far south as Paringa.
Gold was discovered on the West Coast as early as 1864, but the hunt for the precious
metal only really gained momentum two years later when famed prospector William Fox
chartered the SS
Woodpecker
and landed it on the lee side of Seal Island. The area just south
of where the Fox River empties into the Tasman Sea became known as Woodpecker Bay,
and miners by their thousands stampeded to this stretch of coast.
Reaching the areas along the 'beach highway' was extremely challenging for miners.
Despite the Nelson Provincial Government replacing the Maori flax ladders at Perpendicular
Point with chains, miners still looked inland for a safer route. In 1866 work began on the In-
land Pack Track, which avoided the hazardous Perpendicular Point. It was cut through the
western lowlands of the Paparoa Range, and in 1868 was used to extend the Christch-
urch-Greymouth telegraph line north to Westport.
After the miners left, tourism became the region's main activity. A coastal track being cut
by the early 1900s eventually became SH6.
The Paparoa Range and lowlands were thrust into the consciousness of the nation in the
1970s, when there was interest in logging the area. This sparked a heated conservation cam-
paign that led to the establishment, in 1987, of the 305-sq-km national park.
Environment
The Paparoa Range is composed mainly of granite and gneiss peaks, which have been
carved by glaciers and weathered by rain, snow and wind into a craggy chain of pinnacles
and spires. It is a low but very rugged range, between 1200m and 1500m in height, offering
a true wilderness experience suitable only for experienced trampers with strong mental forti-
tude. Cloud and rain feature regularly in Paparoa's midst.
