New
Zealand's national parks and protected areas are considered taonga,
or treasures of irreplaceable value, with many containing features of
great historic and spiritual significance to Maori.
In 1887,
Maori gifted their ancestral volcanic peaks of Tongariro, Ruapehu and
Ngauruhoe, in the central North Island, to the people of New Zealand,
creating the country's first, and the world's fourth national park.
Today, there are 13 parks that preserve some of New Zealand's most spectacular
scenery, its rare and endangered flora and fauna and archaeological
sites.
Five of these
parks make up two United Nations World Heritage sites, with Westland,
Fiordland, Mount Cook, and Mount Aspiring comprising one and Tongariro
the other.
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