A sparsely populated and mostly wild landscape, the West Coast of New Zealand is a land of national parks, with scenery, wildlife, and activities to spare. Along the Canterbury border, Westland/Tai Poutini National Park contains the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers—only accessible by air tours and guided walks. In the region’s north is Nelson Lakes National Park and in the far south is Mount Aspiring National Park, part of the Te Wahipounamu-South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. These parks encourage a range of activities such as tramping (hiking), fishing, caving (spelunking), rafting, and kayaking.

A gold rush in the 1880s helped to develop the West Coast’s largest town, Greymouth. Local gold and coal mining history, as well as that of the timber industry, is explained at attractions throughout the region.