Arthur's Pass National Park is located in the South Island of New Zealand and covers 1,185 km2 of mostly mountainous terrain. Adjacent to it lies Craigieburn Forest Park. The park is administered by the Department of Conservation.
History Park establishment Land in Arthur's Pass and the Otira Gorge was originally set aside under the Lands Act 1885 and the Scenery Preservation Act of 1903. This land later became the foundation for the national park.
After the Midland railway line was built, train trips from Christchurch to the Otira Gorge began in 1926 when the Railway Department organised day excursions for hundreds of tourists. Unfortunately, native flowers were popular souvenirs. Some individuals chose to cut down trees to obtain rātā blooms. As a result, there was a large push to establish national park status for the area. Arthur′s Pass National Park was established in 1929, becoming the first national park in the South Island and the third in New Zealand. Underfunding meant that national park status was initially in name only: it took a number of years for the flora and fauna in the park to be fully protected.
Park rangers The first park ranger at Arthur's Pass National Park was Charles Edward Warden, who was appointed in 1929 on the establishment of the park and served until November 1937. Warden lived in a cottage at 'Tin Town' inside the park and was paid an honorarium for his work, which included marking and maintaining tracks, public relations and advice to visitors about the park, and trying to stop tourists from destroying or removing plants. In 1942, Warden was appointed to the Arthur's Pass National Park Board of Control. The first full-time ranger at the park, Martin Burke, was employed in 1938.
Ray Cleland, ranger from 1950 to 1958, made many improvements in the park. He established a museum, oversaw building of a park ranger's house and workshop, and helped establish a 48-bunk youth hostel and a chapel. Walking tracks for less-fit visitors were created along with camping and picnic sites and more information signs. Cleland attempted to control plant and animal pests and had to deal with "boisterous" visitors on excursion trains. Cleland is remembered in the name of a street (Cleland Place) in Arthur's Pass village.
Expansion In 1901, the Riversdale Flats were gazetted for inclusion in Arthur's Pass National Park, However, when the park was created in 1929, the 1,000 hectares of the Riversdale Flats were excluded. These were then incorporated into the Mount White Station lease. In 2007, the Arthur's Pass National Park plan recommended the inclusion of the Riversdale Flats. In late 2021, the status of whether the Riversdale Flats should remain within the Mount White lease or be incorporated into Arthur's Pass National Park was before the courts.
Management The Department of Conservation operates a depot, administration and information centre in Arthur's Pass village. It has been proposed that facilities should be developed to encourage more visitors to stay the night. Achieving this would require more high-end accommodation and amenities to be built. The report notes that visitors peak over summer. There is a lack of longer day walk options in the park and all–weather amenities. The report also suggested that a cable car would be popular to access the tops of the mountains as would hot pools in the village and an upgraded visitor centre. The Department of Conservation had yet to make a decision on the development of Arthur's Pass National Park by June 2021.
From 2019, most international visitors to New Zealand have been charged an 'International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy' (IVL). At Arthur's Pass National Park, $300,000 from the IVL fund has been allocated for "delivery of a collaborative co-design approach to support the development of a well-functioning regional visitor destination".
Geography
Arthur′s Pass National Park is bisected by . The road passes through Arthur's Pass village and the mountain pass with the same name over the Southern Alps at a height of 920 metres above sea level. The National Park is located within a few hours of driving from Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand.
The park is split by the main divide of the South Island. The eastern side is typically drier and consists of mountain beech forest and wide riverbeds, while the western side contains dense rainforest (which includes mixed podocarp and rata). Much of the geography was formed by ancient glacial action, forming flat bottomed U-shaped valleys. In the middle is a high range, consisting of large, snow-covered peaks and scree slopes.Arthur's Pass National Park > New Zealand, www.newzealand.com. Retrieved 30 November 2009
The park contains the following geographical features: A portion of the main divide of the South Island, including the following passes - Harman, Waimakariri Col, Arthur's itself, Goat (on the Mingha-Deception route), Tarahuna, Worsley, Minchin and Harper. The source of the Waimakariri River Numerous tributaries to the Waimakariri River, including the Bealey, Poulter, Hawdon, White, Crow and Anti Crow Rivers. Numerous tributaries to the Taramakau River, including the Ōtira, Deception and Ōtehake Rivers. Mt Murchison at 2400 m is the highest peak within the park.
Climate The coldest temperature recorded in Arthurs Pass was at Bealey on 19 July 1878.
Arthur's Park village
The township of Arthur's Pass is situated on State Highway 73 within the park. It has a store, visitor accommodation, restaurants and a petrol station, and is the starting point for many tracks and walks. The resident population of Arthur's Pass in 2018 was 48 people.
Visitor centre
The first national park visitor centre was built in Arthur′s Pass in 1959, with the help of the Christchurch Wanderers Tramping Club. It was designed by Christchurch architect Paul Pascoe and used local stone to reflect the geology of the national park. As well as Department of Conservation offices, the building housed museum displays on the history of Arthur's Pass (including Richard Seddon's stagecoach) and archives detailing the history of the National Park. In 2019 the building was declared earthquake prone, and the visitor centre was moved to a portacabin across the road. The cost to upgrade the building to the required standard was estimated at NZ$3 million.
Ecology and conservation Flora The plant habitats in Arthurs Pass National Park are quite different on each side of the Main Divide. The eastern side of the park has less rainfall and braided riverbeds, supporting red beech and mountain beech forests with little understorey. Drier valley floors are dominated by grasses, sedges and tussock surrounded by shrubland of matagouri and hebes. Above the bush line are areas of snow tussock, alpine herb fields and scree slopes. The western side of the park has high rainfall, river gorges and dense rainforest.
Fauna
Whio (blue duck) A 2004 survey found only three whio (blue ducks) in the Mingha and Deception Valley area of the park, and by 2021 it was estimated that there were fewer than 3,000 whio left in New Zealand. Seventeen birds were released into the Mingha–Deception Valley area in March 2021, and monitored stoat traps help reduce predation on them.
Kākāriki karaka (orange-fronted parakeet) The rarest of New Zealand's kākāriki species, the orange-fronted parakeet (Cyanoramphus malherbi) has twice been declared extinct. It is only found in Arthur's Pass National Park and the Lake Sumner Forest Park and is critically endangered. The Department of Conservation works with Ngāi Tahu to protect the kākāriki karaka, which is a taonga species for the iwi. It is most commonly seen in the Hawdon and Poulter valleys. The bird nests in holes in trees, making it vulnerable to predators. Predator control has been carried out in the Arthur's Pass National Park since 2005. Since 2019, the wild population has increased from about 150-200 birds to around 360 birds.
Kea
Kea are regularly seen in both the park and the township. Kea also visit the local ski fields (Porters, Cheeseman, Broken River, Craigieburn and Temple Basin). Kea are at risk of predation by stoats, possums and feral cats. They have also learned to interact with visitors, scavenging or scrounging food and getting into rubbish. This habituates the kea to human food and puts it at risk of eating bait laid down for predators. In 2022, The Department of Conservation and OSPRI (a company working to manage farm animal diseases) funded research near Arthur's Pass to test whether bird repellents would stop kea from interacting with 1080 bait. The year-long study showed that the repellents were ineffective.
The kea is an intelligent, curious and playful bird. When kea visit Arthur's Pass village to scavenge food, they walk across the road or perch on moving cars, sometimes falling off. A conservationist at Arthur's Pass states that between 2020 and 2022, 12 kea were killed by cars including eight in Arthur's Pass village. Visitors are encouraged not to feed kea and to dispose of their rubbish carefully.
Kea also have a habit of eating lead from building flashings and nails, which is toxic and can kill them. In 2018 a project was undertaken to remove lead from houses at Arthur's Pass to reduce the risk to kea.
Great spotted kiwi (roroa) The great spotted kiwi or roroa (Apteryx maxima) lives in mountainous beech forest near Arthur's Pass village, which is one of three natural populations of the bird. Their habitat in the National Park means they are less prone to predation than other species of kiwi, and the total population, though classed as vulnerable, is relatively stable at around 14,000 birds. Great spotted kiwi at Arthur's Pass National Park are occasionally killed or injured by cars as they cross the road (and one was killed by a train).
Weka Weka are becoming more common in the western side of the park and occasionally in the Edwards Valley. Weka used to be common in the park but by the 1920s had disappeared, possibly due to predation by weasels. From 1961, there were several attempts to reintroduce weka to the Andrews Valley, Taramakau Valley and Poulter Valley areas in the park with birds sourced from the Chatham Islands and the West Coast. In 1968 it was announced that West Coast weka appeared to have been successfully re-established in the Taramakau Valley. Further sightings in the next few years confirmed that the population was growing. They have slowly expanded their territory and predator control has allowed the population to expand towards Arthur's Pass Village.
Mohua (yellowhead) The mohua or yellowhead is a small bird that nests and roosts in holes in trees. It was formerly common in South Island beech forests, but populations in the Arthur's Pass area declined by the 1980s due to predation by rats and stoats. The remaining small population was wiped out in 1999–2000 when predator numbers increased dramatically after the beech trees produced huge numbers of seeds (known as a beech mast). In 2022, the Department of Conservation released 41 birds into the Poulter Valley in Arthur's Pass National Park in an attempt to re-establish the mohua population. In 2025 a large beech mast was predicted, so the Department of Conservation increased its predator control efforts in the park and other locations.
Introduced mammals Trail cameras show that deer, pigs, possums, feral cats, stoats and mice have been seen at Arthur's Pass. These animals threaten native wildlife in various ways: habitat destruction, eating birds or their eggs, and eating the food sources of native birds. For example, it was discovered that feral cats in the park eat short-horned grasshoppers (Acrididae). The Department of Conservation controls rats, stoats and possums in the park using aerial drops of 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) and ground control methods such as traps and toxins in bait stations.