Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand

country. New Zealand

year of inscription. 1995

criteria. Natural

This WHS is located in southwest New Zealand, in the regions of Otago, Southland, and West Coast. It consists of four national parks – Aoraki / Mount Cook, Fiordland, Mount Aspiring, and Westland Tai Poutini – which covers some 10% of the total land area of the country, including the Southern Alps (or, Kä Tiritiri o te Moana), stretching 450km and extending 40 – 90km inland from the Tasman Sea. It incorporates classic examples of tectonic, climatic, and glacial processes, with landforms and features like fjords, rocky coasts, towering cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, as well as hundreds of glaciers, including Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. The flora and fauna here is thought to be modern representations of those of Godwana, including 800-year old southern beech and podocarps, as well as rare birds like the kea and takahe.

what. postcard (New Zealand, 2012)