There are few places left on earth like Westland National Park where such a complete cross-section of landscapes from the tops of the highest mountains right down to the sea is still in a near wilderness state.

Such a range of habitats and altitude variation makes an impressive sanctuary for New Zealand's diminishing native flora and fauna. The Outstanding scenery here is often reflected on the silky dark, tannin stained waters of the lake, particularly in the morning as the coastal sea-breeze is lifted high above the surrounding mountain peaks.

New Zealand is an old land with a young landscape - a paradox that is nowhere truer than in this region.

Steep but short on a global scale, the mountains of the Southern Alps are laid out as a chain sitting across the predominant wind flow of the south hemisphere. The land and its formation, the forest that has regenerated on it and the climate here, combine to create a unique regional setting.

Natural History

The Lake at the coastal section of the Glacier valley is a formation created by glaciers during the last ice age as they descended into the lowlands and out to the coast of prehistoric New Zealand.
With the natural warming of the Globe since the last Ice ages, the glaciers have retreated back up into the peaks and left depressions in the land to be filled with rainwater.
Staggering amount of rain are evident here in this region, 2metres per annum at the lake, and some 4 metres per year, closer to the mountains (at the village).
The colour of the water is such that it reflects everything as we paddle across the lake to the Okarito state forest to explore the estuaries found there.
The stately Kahikatea forests that fringe the lake are evident of much warmer climates and yet are able to thieve in a glacier valley, a beautiful setting and we pride ourselves on providing the explanations in our interpretation of the region as we tour the lake.
We have fun with expanding appreciation of this region, and want to have fun with complimenting International visitors here to visit the Glaciers as they descend into the remarkably different climates found in this park of the valley.

The Southern Alps

The Southern Alps are composed of schist and greywackes laid down as sediments mostly during the Permian and Triassic periods, but they were thrust up into high mountains only during the last 5 million years and are thereby one of the youngest large mountain ranges in the world. Most of the surface features of the landscape, especially the mountain cirques and valleys and the lowland moraines and lakes, were moulded during the last major advance of the glaciers which ended about 14000 years ago.

Westland National Park safeguards for all time a place where nature can carry on her great dramas uninterrupted by man's heavy hand, where scientists can unravel the evolution of the landforms and plant and animal life, and where the wider public can enter freely to find inspiration and enjoyment in a wild and undisturbed natural world.