Westland Tai Poutini National Park is a national park located on the western coast of New Zealand's South Island. Established in 1960 as Westland National Park to commemorate the centenary of the European settlement of Westland District, it covers of largely mountainous terrain and forest. The park borders the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park along the Main Divide of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, and includes many of the West Coast's glaciers, most notably including the Fox / Te Moeka o Tuawe and Franz Josef / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere glaciers. The small tourist towns of Fox Glacier and Franz Josef / Waiau are the main settlements within the park, while remnants of old gold mining towns can be found along the coast. The park offers hunting opportunities for red deer, chamois, and tahr, while helicopters allow hunters to access the rugged, mountainous areas. The popular Copland Track runs upstream from the Karangarua River bridge. Along with the mountain scenery visible from the track, there are hot springs at Welcome Flat Hut. The park has been progressively expanded since its establishment, largely through incorporating nearby forest reserves or other conservation land. Ōkārito and Waikukupa State Forests were added to the park in 1982, followed by the upper Karangarua Valley in 1983, North Ōkārito and Saltwater State Forests in 2002, and over of other land scattered throughout the park in 2010. Geography Westland Tai Poutini National Park covers exclusively on the western side of the South Island's main divide, making it New Zealand's fifth largest national park. The park covers a wide variety of environments, ranging from high alpine tundra near the park's border with Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park to coastal wetlands around Ōkārito Lagoon. This contributes to a large variation in elevation within the park, which extends from sea level to at Mount Tasman. The mountains are also responsible for the high degree of orographic rainfall which occurs in the park due to the prevailing westerlies, contributing in turn to the dense temperate rainforest found throughout the park. See also National parks of New Zealand Conservation in New Zealand Tramping in New Zealand References Westland District Protected areas established in 1960 Protected areas of the West Coast, New Zealand Southern Alps 1960 establishments in New Zealand