While
the
neighbouring Australia has got both temperate and tropical
rainforests,
New Zealand rainforest
is temperate.
These
forests
are found on the
whole North Island, and on the western
side of
South Island.
On the North Island
there are many great national parks where you can visit rainforests.
Tongariro
National Park, known for its active volcanoes, has got lowland rainforest on
lower slopes, home to many native birds.
North-east
of it is the Urewera
National Park,
which protects a large area of native rainforest with plants like
kamahi, tawa, rata, rimu; and red, silver and mountaing beeck. Many
native birds live here, including some rare ones like karearea, kaka,
kakariki, and the North Island Brown Kiwi.
Whanganui
National
Park also contains fairly large rainforests - home to
birds like kaka,
whio, miromiro, riroriro, toutouwai, tui, piwakawaka and
kereru.
Egmont National
Park, home of Mt Taranaki, also contains
rainforest. The lowland forests contain plants like rata and rimu while
higher up there are kaikawaka, totara, kamahi and others.
On the South Island,
there are
rainforests along the western coast. Kahurangi National Park
contains
some rainforests, home to many native bird species such as tui,
bellbirds and South Island Robins. Paparoa National Park
contains forests with cabbage trees, rata and Nikau Palms, and many
native bird species.
Further south, Fjordland
National Park contains some thick forests with some 800
years old trees, as well as podocarp and beech. And finally, Raikura National Park
on Stewart Island contains some dense coastal rainforests with a very
rich birdlife.
Note:
This site uses British English, which is the English we use in
Australia. Disclaimer:
This website is about interesting facts about rainforests.
It
is not
trying to be comprehensive. Although best efforts
have been made to
ensure
that all the information on this
site is correct, rainforest-facts.com
is
not to
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