Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park

Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park is a publicly accessible conservation park in the North Island of New Zealand. The park is centered on the town of Minginui and part of the eastern boundary flanks Te Urewera. The Whirinaki Forest is one of the world's last prehistoric rainforests. The Department of Conservation is responsible for administering the 562 km2 (217 sq mi) park jointly with the local iwi, Ngāti Whare. Tramping is a popular recreation in the park and there is a network of 175 km of tracks and 9 huts that are used for this purpose. The unsealed River Road provides access to a carpark and the starting point of many walks. Short walks lead through native bush to Waiatiu Falls, Arohaki Lagoon, Te Whaiti-Nui-A-Toi Canyon, and Whirinaki Falls, respectively. The rain-fed Arohaki Lagoon is often alive with Southern Bell Frogs. Longer tramping tracks connect several huts and two other access roads. The forests were a focus of protests over logging in the 1970s and 80s. Large parts of the park remain covered in native podocarp forest featuring rimu, tōtara, kahikatea, mataī (Prumnopitys taxifolia), and miro. Some higher parts contain beech forest. The forest supports a wide range of birds, some of which are endangered. Whirinaki is the location of Nga Hua a Tane, a radical place based research programme on rainforests and the ecosystem services they provide to su

NatureReserve data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).