Our environment - flora and fauna
Our stunningly beautiful natural environment makes it difficult for a visitor to decide where to start! By exploring New Zealand with eyeballnz.com we hope you will find it easier to choose the places to visit, or if you have already been here, to remember your previous experiences and plan some new ones.
New Zealand is a country where you can really enjoy ‘the great outdoors’. A country of vast open spaces which vary between; rugged mountain landscapes, rolling pastures, a mixture of sandy beaches and craggy coastline, amazing geothermal and volcanic activity, picturesque fiords, glaciers, subtropical forest, clear mountain streams, stunning alpine lakes, and all in a temperate climate.
New Zealand drifted away from the supercontinent of Gondwanaland into the South Pacific around 80-100 million years ago. As a result, the flora and fauna that evolved here is unique to the country. We have a large number of beautiful native birds and plants as well as a few direct descendents of prehistoric wildlife – the tuatara, weta and giant snail.
Over 20 percent of the country is conservation land in national parks, forests and reserves. The 14 national parks are administered and maintained by the Department of Conservation. There are 4 national parks in the North Island: Te Urewera, Tongariro, Whanganui and Egmont/Taranaki. There are 10 national parks in the South Island: Kahurangi, Nelson Lakes, Abel Tasman, Paparoa, Arthur’s Pass, Mount Cook, Westland, Mt Aspiring, Fiordland, Rakiura (Stewart Island). Many of the parks have excellent hiking tracks, camping facilities and huts with information centres, and many provide for activities including mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, hunting and fishing.
New Zealand has two World Heritage Areas. Tongariro, in the Central North Island on the volcanic plateau, with active volcanoes of Mount Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. Of special significance to Maori, this area also includes Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake. Te Wahipounamu in the south-west of the South Island includes the four national parks of Westland, Mount Aspiring, Aoraki/Mount Cook and Fiordland. This area includes two of our great walks – the Milford and Routeburn tracks – as well as New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mount Cook and the spectacular glaciers in the region.
We also have several Marine reserves around our coast to preserve and protect the coastal and marine landscapes and marine life. You can swim, dive and snorkel in these reserves, but cannot take fish or harm the natural habitat in any way.
Fauna
Prior to human habitation there were no mammals to threaten the birdlife, so many of our native birds evolved as flightless birds, including the kakapo (parrot), the takahe, the weka, the kiwi and the moa (which is now extinct, but was once the world’s largest bird).
With humans, came the predators – the first being rats off the ships, and slowly these flightless birds became more and more endangered. We have extensive conservation programmes to protect these endangered species. Our national bird, the Kiwi, is a nocturnal bird, but can be seen at many zoos and wildlife parks around the country.
Other native birds include the tui with its beautiful song and the cheeky native parrot, the kea and the morepork owl – a very small owl that is named after its call. If visiting Dunedin, the Royal Albatross centre is home to the only breeding colony of Albatross in the Southern Hemisphere and at Oamaru, you can see the rare little blue penguin and the yellow-eyed penguin.
There is an abundance of marine life around New Zealand with must-see attractions of whale and dolphin watching, colonies of New Zealand fur seals, and sea lions. Head to Kaikoura in the South Island for a spot of whale watching. There are many locations where you can swim with dolphins with a specialised tour operator. Game fishing is popular, especially off the Bay of Islands coast in the North Island and there is an abundance of shellfish along our coast and estuaries with a growing shellfish farming industry.
The world’s oldest living beak headed reptile is the tuatara – a lizard like creature that dates back to the dinosaur. Visit the museum in Invercargill for a glimpse of this rare creature, otherwise, you will only find it on conservation islands.
Our rivers and streams offer some of the best fly-fishing in the world – introduced species of brown, rainbow trout and salmon flourish in New Zealand Rivers and streams.
One extra thing you'll love about NZ - there are no nasty poisonous snakes and spiders to creep up on you and bite you!
If you would like more information on New Zealand fauna, visit the links below:
Department of Conservation
Flora
Our temperate climate results in some lush and diverse flora with 80 percent of our trees, ferns and flowering plants being native to New Zealand. You will see marked differences between the flora in the far North to that in the far South – the towering Kauri forests in the far North of the North Island and the mountain beech forests and alpine tussock grasses of the Southern Alps. With some interesting species in between such as, rimu and totara and a wide variety of ferns, mosses and lichens and countless native shrubs.
If you visit New Zealand at Christmas time, you will be greeted in the North Island by the New Zealand Christmas tree, the pohutukawa – bright red in colour and in the South Island, the rata – slightly more orange/red in colour. The ‘Crimson Trail’ project has been set up throughout New Zealand to preserve these beautiful trees with wonderful walks and drives set up to take you to the most stunning specimens throughout the country. See www.projectcrimson.org.nz for more information on these trails.
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