Best National Parks in New Zealand

Tongariro National Park sits on the volcanic plateau in the middle of the North Island, about four and a half hours’ drive from Auckland and an hour from Taupō and Lake Taupō. Three active volcanoes rise from a high desert of tussock and lava: Ruapehu (2,797 m), the highest point in the North Island and home to the Whakapapa and Tūroa ski fields; the symmetrical cone of Ngauruhoe, which played Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films; and Tongariro itself.

Most visitors come for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19.4 km one-way day hike from Mangatepopo to Ketetahi past the Red Crater and the steaming, mineral-green Emerald Lakes. It takes six to eight hours, climbs about 800 m, and is fully exposed: in winter or bad weather it is a mountaineering trip, not a walk. There is no visitor parking at Mangatepopo in summer, so almost everyone uses a shuttle from Whakapapa Village, National Park Village or Taupō, which you should book a day or two ahead in summer. The three to four-day Tongariro Northern Circuit Great Walk loops around Ngauruhoe and includes the crossing’s best section.

Shorter walks from Whakapapa Village include Taranaki Falls (two hours return) and the Tama Lakes. Volcanic alert levels change, and sections of track close when they do, so check the GeoNet and DOC sites the day before.

Te Papakura o Taranaki, still widely called Egmont National Park, is a near-perfect circle of forest around the 2,518 m volcano Mount Taranaki, 30 minutes from New Plymouth. Three roads climb to the bush line at North Egmont, Stratford Plateau (Manganui) and Dawson Falls, and each has day walks. The Pouakai Crossing, a 19 km day hike, passes the Pouakai Tarns, where on a still morning the whole mountain is reflected in the water. Te Rere o Kapuni (Dawson Falls) is a 20-minute walk from the visitor centre on the southeast side.

Summiting is a long, steep day (eight to ten hours return from North Egmont) and only sensible from about January to March without ice gear. Taranaki makes its own weather and has a long record of fatal accidents, so turn back if cloud comes in.

Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest park and the most relaxed: golden sand beaches, granite headlands and clear green bays, about an hour from Nelson. There are no roads through it. You arrive at Marahau or Kaiteriteri and travel by water taxi, sea kayak or on foot along the 60 km Abel Tasman Coast Track, which takes three to five days in full but cuts easily into day sections: take a water taxi north to Bark Bay or Anchorage and walk back. Some stretches, such as the Awaroa Inlet crossing, are only passable within about two hours of low tide.

Paparoa National Park, 45 minutes north of Greymouth, is known for the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki: layered limestone stacks and blowholes reached by a 20-minute paved loop from the highway. Go at high tide with a westerly swell for the blowholes to work. The 55 km Paparoa Track, opened in 2019, crosses the range in two or three days and is shared with mountain bikers.

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park holds most of New Zealand’s peaks over 3,000 m, including Aoraki / Mount Cook at 3,724 m and Mount Sefton above the village. The road in runs up the turquoise shore of Lake Pukaki, about 3.5 hours from Christchurch or three from Queenstown, and ends at Aoraki / Mount Cook Village, which has a DOC visitor centre, a few hotels, a lodge and the White Horse Hill campground.

Fiordland National Park covers the whole southwest corner of the South Island, a wilderness of fiords, rainforest and granite walls with one road in. From Te Anau, State Highway 94 runs 119 km to Milford Sound, about two hours without stops, through the Eglinton Valley, past Lake Gunn and the Mirror Lakes and through the Homer Tunnel. Cruises of about two hours run out to the Tasman Sea beneath Mitre Peak and past Bowen Falls. Rain is the best time to go: the walls run with hundreds of temporary waterfalls. A day trip from Queenstown is 12 hours or more on a coach, so stay in Te Anau or fly in.

Doubtful Sound is longer, quieter and wilder. Tours cross Lake Manapouri by boat from Manapouri, then go over Wilmot Pass by bus before a cruise on the sound, about seven to eight hours from Te Anau, or stay overnight on a boat.

Fiordland has three Great Walks. The 53.5 km Milford Track takes four days from the head of Lake Te Anau to Milford, passing the 580 m Sutherland Falls. The Kepler Track is a 60 km loop from Te Anau, and the Routeburn Track (32 km, two to three days) crosses into neighbouring Mount Aspiring National Park. There, the Rob Roy Glacier Track (about 10 km return, three to four hours) from the Matukituki Valley near Wānaka is one of the best day walks in the country, and the Blue Pools on the Haast Pass road are a 1.5 km stroll from the highway.

Rakiura National Park covers most of Stewart Island, across Foveaux Strait from Bluff. The ferry takes about an hour (the strait can be rough), or small planes fly from Invercargill in about 20 minutes to Oban, the only settlement. The 32 km Rakiura Track is the easiest Great Walk, three days through coastal forest. The real draw is birds: the Stewart Island tokoeka, a kiwi that sometimes forages by day, and the predator-free Ulva Island, ten minutes by water taxi from Golden Bay wharf, where saddleback, robins and weka come right up to the path. Guided night kiwi-spotting trips run from Oban.

Some of the best nature in the country is outside the 13 parks. Te Urewera, once a national park, became a legal entity in its own right in 2014 and is managed with Ngāi Tūhoe; the 46 km Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk circles Lake Waikaremoana there. In Northland, Waipoua Forest protects Tāne Mahuta, the largest living kauri tree, a few minutes’ walk from State Highway 12. Near Rotorua, Wai-O-Tapu has the orange-rimmed Champagne Pool and the Lady Knox Geyser. In the far south, the Catlins coast has Purakaunui Falls and McLean Falls. Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges are a regional park, with several tracks closed to fight kauri dieback.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) runs every park. Its visitor centres in Te Anau, Aoraki / Mount Cook, Franz Josef, Whakapapa, St Arnaud and Arthur’s Pass sell hut tickets and give the day’s track and weather information. You need a car or campervan for most parks; buses from InterCity reach the main gateways, and our getting around guide covers the options.

Great Walk huts and campsites are booked online through DOC and the popular ones go fast: the Milford, Routeburn and Kepler sell out within hours of the season opening for bookings, usually in the middle of the year before. International visitors pay a higher rate than New Zealanders on most Great Walks. Backcountry huts away from the Great Walks use cheap hut tickets or a Backcountry Hut Pass and are first come, first served. The Great Walks season runs from late October to late April; outside it, huts lose their gas and wardens and the alpine tracks become avalanche terrain.

Summer (December to March) is the main season and the busiest; February and March are usually the most settled for alpine walking. Spring (October and November) brings snowmelt waterfalls and lambs but changeable weather, and winter suits skiing at Ruapehu and short low-level walks. See our best time to visit New Zealand guide for the month-by-month picture.

The rules are strict and enforced. Dogs are banned in all national parks. Drones need a DOC permit. Freedom camping inside parks is limited to marked sites, and self-contained vehicle rules apply on the roads in. Clean your boots at the stations at track entrances to stop kauri dieback, and check, clean and dry kayaks and gear between rivers to stop the didymo algae. Do not feed kea or any other bird. In Māori tradition many summits are sacred: Ngāti Tūwharetoa ask climbers not to stand on the very top of Tongariro’s peaks, and the people of Taranaki ask the same of their mountain. Read the culture guide for more on tikanga, and our historic sites guide for the pā and settler towns near the parks.