WILDERNESS: A Kiwi Perspective

“There are plenty of tamed wonders for all to goggle at through vehicle windows—we must also retain our wilderness areas where nature can develop in its own calm way, and where only those humans who are prepared to walk and sweat a little qualify to go.”
Sir Edmund Hillary, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win

We were trudging uphill through cold, dense fog on Day Three of a five-day journey in the Paparoa Range when suddenly, and for only a brief moment, the clouds parted and as far as we could see, jagged peaks marched across the landscape like an army of battle-worn, wind-swept giants. What we glimpsed before the storm closed back in was but a small section of a 100km-long mountain range.

The Paparoa Range runs from Westport to just north of Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It marks the boundary between the human-inhabited world and a large area of inhospitable, wild terrain.

A line on the map where we stood divides the range into two quite different worlds. On one side, there are backcountry tracks and huts on the slopes and farmland and small towns stretching across the coastal flats to the sea. On the other side lies the Paparoa Wilderness Area—a 31,000ha wilderness, legally protected to keep out intrusive human activities and to preserve nature undisturbed.

“Many Kiwis, although very aware of our national parks, know little about wilderness areas or that they even exist.”