Te Wahipounamu
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How it came to be
Te Wāhipounamu is Māori for the place of greenstone, pounamu. It covers the south-west of New Zealand's South Island for about 450 km along the coast and up to 90 km inland, around a tenth of the country's land. It rises from sea level to 3,724 metres at Aoraki / Mount Cook.
For Māori the area was a key source of pounamu, used for tools, weapons and ornaments. In tradition, four sons of the Sky Father were turned to stone and their canoe became the South Island, and the tallest of them, Aoraki, is Aoraki / Mount Cook. Most of the South Island lies within the territory of Ngāi Tahu, with whom the Department of Conservation plans each year.
Fiordland and Westland/Mount Cook national parks were inscribed separately in 1986. In 1990 about 1.2 million hectares between them were added, and the whole area of 2.6 million hectares, with four national parks, was inscribed as one site.
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