"It [Paparoa National park] contains scenery of distinctive quality, ecosystems of outstanding scientific interest, and beautiful and unique natural features.

Specific references for this page: Proposed Punakaiki National Park - National Parks & Reserves Authority 1985 Craig Potton 1998: National Parks of New Zealand. Craig Potton Publishing. Gerald Cubitt and Les Molloy 1994: Wild New Zealand. New Holland. Robbie Burton & Maggie Atkinson 1998: A Tramper's Guide to New Zealand National Parks. Reed John Cobb 1990: The Walking Tracks of New Zealand's National . Viking. Andy Dennis 1981: The Paparoas Guide. Andy Dennis and Native Forest Action Council.

These result form an unusual combination of natural history, geological history and climate which has created an area which has no parallel in New Zealand and perhaps worldwide". From Proposed Punakaiki National Park. National Parks & Reserves Authority 1985.

Paparoa National Park covers 30,000 hectares (120 square miles) of very wild land in the northern Westland area. It was created in1987 to reserve this land from mining and forestry exploitation. It was also the first of the 'scientific' national parks of New Zealand, and its boundaries were carefully chosen to encompass a complete range of ecosystems. The landscape presents great contrasts, from the granite and gneiss summits of the Paparoa Range, across the forest-clad canyons and karst of the limestone lowlands, and down to the coastal cliffs with the maze and blowholes of the Pancake Rocks.
See below: Activities - What to see and do in Paparoa National Park

Geological setting
 The eastern boundary of the park follows the axial part of the Paparoa range, from which the land drops progressively towards the coast. In this southern part of the Paparoa Range the rocks are mostly upper precambrian granitic gneisses.
Further west the lowlands include a series of sedimentary rocks, from cretaceous sandstones, conglomerates and coal measures, to cenozoic limestones and siltstones. This is where the karst landforms have developed.
See also Rocks of the New Zealand mountains

The Paparoa karst
The karst landscape of Paparoa National Park is considered to be of international scientific significance, because it is the only extensive lowland karst in New Zealand with a virtually undisturbed forest cover, permitting biological, chemical and physical processes to operate in an entirely natural manner.
It includes gorges, disappearing and reappearing streams, caves, dolines, a polje and areas of karren.

Vegetation
  Most of the park's area is covered in native lowland forest. It is the largest complete ecological system of contiguous warm lowland and coastal forest, and montane forest, remaining in New Zealand . The diversity of rock types and corresponding soils has led to the evolution of a diversity of forest types which is unmatched in any other lowland area of New Zealand. There are three main types of forest: coastal podocarp-northern rata/broadleaf forest, podocarp-beech forest and montane beech-hardwood forest.
  The western Paparoa Range is considered of international botanical value because of significant plant associations and rare species. It is the southernmost place where tree ferns and palms grow together. Some plants are endemic to or strongly centered on the area, suggesting that it was a refuge for plants during the ice ages. And in it live a number of very primitive or rare species, especially of the genera Neogrolleoideae, Jubulopsis, Pachyglossa and Isophyllaria.

Birds
The bird life in Paparoa National park is remarkable for its diversity as well as for density. Thanks to un unmodified altitudinal sequence of forests several species such as tui, bellbird, kaka, New Zealand pigeon and parakeets migrate from winter habitat in the lower forests to summer habitat in the upland forests. The area has one of the two most important populations of great spotted kiwi in New Zealand (the other being North-West Nelson/Kahurangi National Park). The black Westland petrel is endemic to the area, and the hills between Punakaiki and Lawson creek are their only known breeding colony worldwide.
See also:
Kahurangi National Park

Activities - What to see and do in Paparoa National Park

Short and day walks
The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki are one of New Zealand's best known natural attractions, easily accessible thanks to a high grade walkway. Truman Track is another coastal walk, leading through forest and scrub down to the beach, and past some caves at the base of sea cliffs.
In its western, coastal part the landscape of Paparoa National Park is dominated by limestone canyons and related karst features, all clad in lush rainforest to which a profusion of tree ferns and nikau palms convey a somewhat tropical character.
Several tracks lead from the coast into this wilderness, notably along the Punakaiki and Pororari Rivers.
As well as similar attractions, the canyon of the Fox river also includes the Fox River caves, which are a very accessible sample of the various cave systems that riddle the limestone country of the park.

Tramping
  "The Paparoa National Park offers tramping conditions quite unlike those found in any other New Zealand National Park. Although the scope for lengthy trips on established tracks and routes is limited, the trips currently available are superb. There is mostly easy walking on very accessible tracks, and as long as trampers are wary of flooded rivers and don't wander off into the broken karst country the area is quite safe". From Robbie Burton & Maggie Atkinson 1998: A Tramper's Guide to New Zealand National Parks

The only established tramping track is the Inland Pack Track, which was cut in 1867-1868 in order to bypass the coastal cliffs between the Punakaiki and Fox rivers. It loops into the wilderness of the park, the luxuriant forest and the limestone canyons. It also provides a good way to access some of the major caves of the park, and to observe many karstic features.
There is no track to any of the summits of the Paparoa Range, but a marked route starting at the end of the road in Bullock Creek offers a one-day return trip to Mt Bovis, which discloses extensive views over the park and the Paparoa Range.

Caving
  Some of the major caves in Paparoa National Park have been known and visited since the end of the 19th century, but a systematic phase of detailed exploration only started in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Detailed knowledge of the caves is now available, and the major sinkholes, streams and resurgences have been located. Yet there also remains good potential for prospection.
  The whole area between the Tiropahi and Punakaiki rivers (i.e. the whole western, limestone part of the park) is rich in caves, shafts and dolines. It is usually described as having "great speleological potential" and "great sporting potential".
  The 5 km (3 miles) long Xanadu cave system is currently the most visited in the park. The upper Bullock Creek gorge, where it is located, contains a concentration of cave systems, which link with each other or with caves in nearby gorges.
  North of the main body of the park a small enclave, centred on the Aranui stream, contains the 8 km (5 miles) Metro (or Aranui) caves, one of the longest systems in New Zealand.

Canoeing
"The Waitakere (Nile) River is a little like the Oparara River in that it is a very small and easily paddled river but has tremendous scenery - limestone gorge and native forest" Graeme Egarr, in New Zealand's South Island Rivers, A Guide for Canoeists, Kayakers and Rafters.
The Pororari River is another little scenic river often paddled by canoeists.

Surfing
Some of the best surfing on the West Coast is done a little north of Paparoa National Park, in an area centred on Westport.