Category World Famous National Parks

The Nelson Lakes National Park supports a honeydew ecosystem. Honeydew is a sweet sticky substance that forms a rich source of food for many birds, bats, lizards and insects.

Honeydew is produced by small scale insects that live inside the bark of beech trees; it is a sugar-rich sticky substance formed in droplets that protrudes from each tree trunk.

The Nelson Lakes National Park is centred around two large lakes, Rotoiti and Rotoroa; these lakes are the largest in this area. Both the lakes are surrounded by steep mountains and the shores of the lakes are lined by native honeydew beech forest, which feed a variety of tuneful nectar-eating native birds.

Apart from the red and silver beech trees, the forests around the lakes are abundant with a range of shrubs. These shrubs have an unusual wiry form. This feature is thought to have evolved as a defence against browsing by moa, a flightless bird now extinct.

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How can anyone compare rocks to pancakes? But we do have rocks shaped like pancakes stacked together in a giant heap. This curious structure is found in Paproa National Park. The Pancake Rocks are one of the most visited tourist destinations in New Zealand.

The Pancake Rocks are in fact a heavily eroded limestone area that forms surge pools and blow holes. Apart from the Pancake Rocks, the Paparoa National Park has a variety of landforms including mountains, high cliffs, lowlands, glacial valleys and coastal terrains.

Due to the mild climate and high fertility of the soil, a variety og organisms thrive in Paparoa National Park. One could find colonies of the Westland petrel, a rare seabird, in the densely forested terraces south of the Punakaiki river. Seals including the fur seal, elephant seal and leopard seal are also found here in abundance.

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Locked between Golden Bay and Tasman Bay at the north end of the South Island, Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest national park in New Zealand. The park is named after a European explorer Abel Tasman. Tasman was the first person to sight New Zealand in 1642 and anchored near the Golden Bay.

Abel Tasman National Park is a forested hilly area with considerable flora and fauna. Petrels, shags, penguins, gulls, terns, and herons are the birds that frequent this area.

A private funded trust named Project Janszoon works to conserve and restore the Park’s ecosystem. This name too has got something to do with the European explorer; Janszoon is Tasman’s middle name!

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The Westland Tai Poutini National park stretches from the highest peaks of Southern Alps to a remote coastline. Within this stretch, it contains glaciers, lakes, dense temperate rainforests, the remains of old gold mining towns along the coast and even hot springs. There are sixty named glaciers in Westland Tail Poutini National Park!

Both rain and snow falls on the park. There are three main rivers that originate in the park; they empty into the Tasman Sea. The diverse geological forms support a variety of plant and animal life. Gillespies Beach in the park is home to the only species of fur seal breeding on the New Zealand mainland. A sizeable bird population thrives on the vegetation in the park that includes huge pines and cypresses, and subalpine scrubs. The birds in the park range from ducks and kingfishers to skylarks and falcons. Himalayan tahr too can be spotted here.

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The sand dunes in Sigatoka became the first national park in Fiji. These sand dunes were continuously forming for thousands of years as a result of coastal erosion and are 20-60 metres tall.

Sigatoka National Park supports a sand dune ecosystem, and is home to different varieties of plants and 22 species of birds. This place is of archaeological importance as well. Several excavations have been carried out in this site and the findings include pottery that is more than 2600 years old. The dunes came under the management of the National Trust of Fiji in 1989.

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Freycinet National Park, noted for its range of rare and endemic flora and fauna, as well as the diversity of landscapes and communities is also the oldest national park in Tasmania. Granite mountains, sandy beaches, dunes and estuaries dominate the landscape of Freycinet National Park.

A place of scenic beauty, Freycinet National Park is also noted for its flora and fauna; forty-nine endemic species are found at Freycinet. Whales, particularly southern right whales are frequent visitors here. The fauna of Freycinet include brushtail possum, sugar glider, humpback whale and bottlenose dolphins. The Tasmanian devil was once a common sight at the park. Now there is a significant drop in their numbers due to a cancer known as the Devil Facial Tumour Disease. The Park has a vivid plant life as well; more than 500 plants have been recorded within the park including more than 80 species of orchids.

Picture Credit : Google