Whanganui National Park New zealand

Whanganui National Park New Zealand is located at an ancient site that surrounds a central volcanic plateau to Mt Taranaki and the Tasman Sea.

The landscape is uninhabited with few people yet it offers amazing scenes of natural beauty. It has rivers, valleys, forests and a stunning quietness. The Whanganui River is the only access route and is always popular for canoeing.

It is a home of thousands of sedimentary rocks. Owing to this, the majority of valleys here are steep and have sharp, steep river edges. The altitudes vary from 500-700m.

You can reach the Whanganui National Park through its main route, which is Whanganui River, the largest in New Zealand. It is easily sailable, has a muddy color due to abundant sediments produced by mudstones. The dimension of the river is 150 km.

Climatic conditions include rainfall from 900-1250 mm per year and 1200-2000mm per year in south and north respectively. The summer season is usually warm while winters are pleasantly cool.

Since it has huge forests, The Whanganui National Park is a homeland for vegetation. Podocarp/broadleaf along with black beech are main varieties. Others include kahikatea, rewarewa, pukatea, kamahi and mahoe.

The thick and dense forests are home for numerous species including birds and small animals. Including brown kiwis, robins, bellbirds, pigeons, whiteheads, tuis, fantails, grey warblers, kingfishers are few such species.

The major activities in the Wanganui National Park revolve around short and long walking, tramping, viewing wonders of nature and many unique and splendid animals and birds.

Two adventurous walks start from the north of the park to Te Maire and from Maraekowhai to Whanganui River, revealing forests and rivers along the way.

While in the south, Atene Skyline track is much longer track passing through a lowland native forest.

Matemateaonga track and Mangapura /Kaiwhakuka track are major tramping tracks in the park.

The first walk is highly ranked 3-4 day walk with beautiful view of thickly forested terrain while the other walk passes by the WWI and II Commemoration Bridge.