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Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand

The landscape in this park, situated in south-west New Zealand, has been shaped by successive glaciations into fjords, rocky coasts, towering cliffs, lakes and waterfalls. Two-thirds of the park is covered with southern beech and podocarps, some of which are over 800 years old. The kea, the only alpine parrot in the world, lives in the park, as does the rare and endangered takahe, a large flightless bird.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/551

Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand is thought to contain some of the best modern representations of the original flora and fauna present in Gondwanaland. They include kiwis, ‘bush’ moas, carnivorous

Powelliphanta land snails and the endangered takahe. The area contains New Zealand’s highest mountains, longest glaciers, tallest forests, wildest rivers and gorges, most ruggesd coastline and deepest fiords and lakes.

The site incorporates four National Parks, plus the intervening land:

- Aoraki/Mt Cook 

- Fiordland 

- Mt Aspiring 

- Westland 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/tewahipounamu.html