The Castle Hill area is also known as Kura Tawhiti, which means ‘treasure from afar’. The landscape is dominated by limestone formations. Amongst these limestone formations lie hidden treasures, some of the rarest and most endangered plants in Canterbury, and indeed the world. The Castle Hill of today is quite different to the landscape that was originally an important food-gathering area for the nomadic Ngai Tahu. Once covered in totara and tall shrubs, it was cleared mostly by fire and has been grazed on for almost 150 years. Tussock and pasture now prevail, with only one stunted specimen of Hall’s totara remaining, a survivor that found sanctuary on a boulder of limestone. Castle Hill attracted botanical interest as early as the 1860’s when one of the first European settlers in the area, John Enys, found rare plants amongst the limestone outcrops.

Flock Hill Station is a 14,000 hectare working station farming fine wool sheep, beef cattle and red deer. It has many interesting historical and geological features. Farming practices during the early pioneer days are on display here. The station is accessed by many kilometres of farm tracks.

The Bealey Track is a popular walk up into the alpine zone above Arthur's Pass in the Southern Alps. It is an attractive well-graded walk through mountain beech forest to the base of Mount Rolleston. The track goes along the river above the tree line, through open grassland and then up into the rocks. Views are amazing in this area on clear days. The Southern Alps are on the west side, Mount Rolleston and it's Crow Glacier to the north and the Polar Range with its pointy precipices on the east. Kea’s are frequently spotted in this area.

The Dobson Nature Walk is on the summit of Arthur’s Pass and offers a good introduction to the sub-alpine and alpine plants of the area. It also gives good views of the surrounding mountains. The evenly graded track passes through a variety of alpine herbs, tussocks and shrubs. The alpine flowers are in bloom from November to February.

Kumara has a long history of goldmining with much evidence remaining of the wide variety of mining techniques used. Two old town sites, Goldsborough and Callaghans, are adjacent to the area. The first part of the Goldsborough Walk in the Kumara area runs close to the Shamrock Creek, with worked out ground and tailings below the sluice faces. A spectacular example of a miners’ tunnel can also be seen at the start of the track.

The Tunnel Loop Walk is a short walk that portrays the goldmining history of the area. The track enters and exits through an old goldmining tailrace tunnel and passes through regenerating rimu, kamahi and tree fern forest.

The Paparoa National Park lies on the western coast of the South Island and was established in 1987. The park is located between Westport and Greymouth and has a total land area of 306 km2. The Paparoa National Park offers some of the finest scenery in New Zealand and is best known for the incredible Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and the blowholes.

Punakaiki township is located at the mouth of the Punakaiki River which is 40km north of Greymouth on the West Coast. It is one of the most popular destinations on the West Coast because of the world famous Pancake Rocks & Blowholes.

These strange formations are caused by a chemical process that began 30 million years ago, when lime-rich fragments of dead marine creatures were deposited on the seabed, and then overlaid by weaker layers of soft mud and clay.

The seabed was raised above sea level by earthquakes to form the coastal cliffs and coastline. The sea, wind and rain have since etched out the soft layers to form the unusual rock formations that are present today.

When conditions are right, heavy ocean swells thunder into the caverns beneath the rocks and huge water spouts blast skywards through the blowholes in a truly spectacular sight.

The Truman Track begins in a beautiful sub-tropical rainforest of ferns, nikau palms and rimu. It passes through typical West Coast coastal flax flats before emerging onto a coastal headland with stunning views up and down the local coastline. A stairway leads down on the north side of the headland to a fine gravel beach featuring cliffs, caves, a waterfall and amazing rock formations. The beach is accessible at low tide where you can walk north and further explore the rugged coastline.

Approximately 12km north of Punakaiki is the Fox River and a small settlement, where the Fox River Caves Track starts. It follows the north bank of the Fox River upstream across open river flats and through the lush native rainforest. The caves have been an attraction since 1908 when a local sheep farmer installed a toll-gate at the entrance and charged for admission into the caves. The caves are beautifully decorated with fragile stalactites and stalagmites.

The drive to the start of the Cave Creek Track is spectacular. Bullock Creek Road is the original farm track from the early 1900’s and winds its way through a limestone canyon for 6kms. The walk into Cave Creek begins with a couple of ridges and then descends into a deeply incised gorge with ferns, huge green mossy boulders and resurging water. There is plenty of birdlife around, including friendly bellbirds and robins.

The Pororari River Track follows the Pororari River upstream into the Paparoa National Park. The lower section of the track passes through the Pororari River Gorge - a valley lined on both sides by dramatic limestone cliffs and bluffs towering over the gorge and river. Walkers then make their way through a dense sub-tropical forest of coastal broadleaf plants, nikau palms, tree ferns and towering rata.

Bird life on the Pororari River Track includes the native Weka, a large, brown flightless bird that has a famously feisty and curious personality. Tomtits, New Zealand Bush Robins, native Pigeons, Tuis and Bellbirds are also found in this area.