Arthur’s Pass National Park is in the heart of the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana. Its high mountains with large scree slopes, steep gorges and wide braided rivers, straddles the main divide – the ‘back bone’ of the South Island – between Canterbury and the West Coast.
It’s a park of contrasts, with dry beech/tawhai forest in the east, luxuriant rainforest on western slopes, and a historic highway and railway running through the middle. Arthur’s Pass was established in 1929 and was New Zealand’s third national park and the first one in the South Island.
Source: Department of Conservation - Crown Copyright
