Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre — Attraction in South Island

We did not received a warm welcome at all, saying that it was pretty hard to see the glaciers with the recent washouts, and not proposing any alternatives to the closed trails.

Furthermore, the lady try to discourage to hike on the most beautiful hike of the area (which I will keep silent as maybe they don't want to send inexperienced trampers) without asking our level of fitness.

Hopefully we did the walk and the view was amazing and the hike not so hard as we took less time than the DOC said.

Instead of saying than the helicopter is the safer (and most profitable obviously) way to see the glacier, they should do what they are here for : advising people according to their experience of the mountain.

To conclude, please stop defending the terrible way of tourism that is Helicopter Tours, as if is was necessity to use choppers to see glaciers which are...

The Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre is located on Cron Street and is open from 8.30am to 5pm daily.

This is a good place and opportunity to find information and maps on area hikes, weather, road conditions and other general travel information you might need. There are also gifts, souvenirs and plenty of brochures for other areas of South Island that you may intend to visit during your travels. Staff are on hand to answer travel related questions you have.

Note: the Westland Tai Poutini National Park Visitor Centre is located in the same building as the local i-Site, which can also help you will activity and tour arrangements as well as local accommodation and...

I’ve travelled extensively across the South Island for 2 months and visited many information centres, but the ranger, a lady from this centre, was by far the most informative and knowledgeable person I’ve met. She not only had deep insight into the local area but also provided valuable information about other regions of New Zealand. Her kindness and willingness to share made me feel truly welcome in Franz Josef 😊❤️. Thanks to her, my visit was even more enjoyable. I’ll definitely return...