The Haast Pass area may be one of your first real encounters with the South Island rainforest. From about Makarora onwards, the mountain valleys become wetter and are often dominated by West Coast beech forests.
The Blue Pools and Haast Pass Lookout walks are good short introductions to this temperate rainforest, which is full of ferns, lichens and epiphytes. You will probably regularly see pīwakawaka (fantails) as well.
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