Nelson Lakes National Park, South Island, New Zealand Photograph by Peter Sundstrom   Northern part of New Zealand's South Island Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests   5,100 square miles (13,200 square kilometers) -- about the size of Connecticut Vulnerable

· From the Mountains to the Sea
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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From the Mountains to the Sea

Located on the northeast tip of South Island, this ecoregion contains some of the most diverse and varied vegetation found in New Zealand. A warm, mild climate influenced by the Cook Strait nourishes mixed forests that include hardwood trees such as the tawa and black maire. The seaward Karikoura Mountains rise up steeply from the coast, reaching 8,530 feet (2,600 m). Above the tree line, alpine flowers, snow tussocks, and speargrass predominate. The Spenser Mountains are also found in this ecoregion. Here beech forests grow, with each of the four southern species–red, silver, hard, and mountain–growing where its ideal soil and climatic conditions are found.

Special Features

Some interesting plants grow among the beech forests, including two unusual orchids. The carnivorous greenhooded orchid has a hinged lid that propels unsuspecting insects into its hood. While beech forests are less dense than podocarp forests and allow more sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor, the potato orchid has no need for sunlight. This plant lacks leaves and chorophyll and instead parasitically obtains its nutrients from tree roots using fungal threads. The potato orchid was named for its large, starchy tubers, which were commonly eaten by the Maori.

Stephens Islands, located in the Cook Strait, are an internationally important wildlife sanctuary. It has the country’s largest tuatara population, estimated to be 30,000. The tuatara is an ancient reptile, similar to a lizard. It has survived relatively unchanged for 200 million years, dating from the time of the dinosaurs. Today it is confined to offshore islands because introduced predators, especially the Pacific rat, have eliminated it on the mainland.

Wild Side

The Karikoura Range is a major center for lizard endemism. This area harbors the most diverse lizard habitat on the mainland, with skinks and geckos found in abundance. The rare black-eyed gecko comes out at night, making its way over rocky slopes. It is one of the rarest geckos in the country and the only one to live at high altitudes. Insects are also common here, with numerous giant wetas inhabiting these forests. Wetas are large, grasshopper-like insects that fill much the same niche that mice and other mammalian herbivores fill elsewhere. Insect-eating birds are common in the forests, including the tiny rifleman (New Zealand’s smallest bird), South Island robins, tomtits, fantails, and gray warblers. The fluffy green riflemen go out in small flocks, hunting for insects among the beech trees, while South Island robins feed on forest-floor invertebrates. The Kaikoura shore area is known for its variety of marine life, including dusky dolphins, Hector’s dolphins, New Zealand fur seals, and sperm whales.

Cause for Concern

Raising sheep for wool is the biggest land use in this area, and much of the land has been converted to pasture. Overgrazing, logging, and feral and introduced animals are all threats as well.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.