Haast is a small town in the Westland District territorial authority on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. The township is beside the Haast River, south of Haast Junction, on State Highway 6. The Haast region is in Te Wahipounamu – The South West New Zealand World Heritage, a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 1990.
Toponymy
The township, the major river that is close to the town, and the pass across to the eastern side of the Southern Alps are all named after Julius von Haast, a Prussian-born geologist who travelled through the area in 1863. Although the prospector Charles Cameron is said to be the first European to ‘discover’ the pass, Haast was recognised by having the town named after him.
History
The main Māori settlement in the area was the pā at the mouth of the Arawhata River.
The Haast area was extensively used by Māori as a key source of pounamu, with the main route from inland being , known as the Haast Pass in English.
Ngāi Tahu occupation of the land was ended by attacks by North Island tribes. In 1836, the Ngāti Tama chief Te Puoho led a 100-person war party, armed with muskets, down the West Coast and over the Haast Pass. He ambushed a Ngāi Tahu encampment between Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea, then went south past Lake Wakatipu. His raid ended in Southland where he was killed and his war party destroyed by the southern Ngāi Tahu leader Tuhawaiki.
European settlement of the area dates back to the 1860s. The remoteness of the area initially limited access to seagoing vessels, with some rough tracks from the north and east.
Early European explorers searched for the Māori routes to cross from the eastern to the western sides of the South Island and vice versa.
Europeans first learnt of the pass when Huruhuru drew a map for the explorer Edward Shortland in 1844. The first European ascent was from the Wānaka side in March 1861, when the exploring survey John Holland Baker, seeking new sheep country, looked down from the saddle towards the West Coast. Charles Cameron, a gold prospector, claimed to have made the first crossing to the coast in 1863. However he was widely believed to have only got to the upper reaches of the Haast River / Awarua.
The honour of first official crossing was claimed by Julius Haast, Canterbury's provincial geologist, who led a five-man expedition in January 1863. He named the Haast River after himself, "directed, so he said, by his provincial superindendent", and returned to Lake Wānaka "nearly shoeless" after six weeks.
His party travelled up the headwaters of the Makarora River, and on 23 January they reached the open, boggy summit of the pass, which was surrounded by beech forest. Haast made a watercolour which was used to illustrate a later report. The party then crossed the pass, and travelled downstream to the coast, which they reached on 20 February.
The present Haast township was originally a New Zealand Ministry of Works road construction camp, which expanded into a permanent township when the opening of the Haast Pass in 1962 made the region more accessible. The road through the pass to Wānaka was upgraded in 1966.
In 1990 the Haast area was included as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, giving international recognition as a location of significant natural value to Te Wahipounamu – The South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.
Geography
Setting
The Haast township is located on the Haast River, approximately south of Haast Junction, on State Highway 6. The Haast River is 100 kilometres (62 mi) in length, and enters the Tasman Sea near the Haast township. It drains the western watershed of the Haast Pass.
The New Zealand Department of Conservation operates a visitor centre in Haast Junction, on the southwest bank of the Haast River, immediately south of the Haast Bridge, at the junction of State Highway 6 and the Haast–Jackson Bay Road. The visitor centre offers a wide range of information about the surrounding area.
Lake Moeraki is to the northeast, and the Haast Pass is to the southeast by road. The settlement of Okuru is located on the coast south-west of Haast.
The small settlement of Haast Beach is on the coast of the Tasman Sea, approximately west southwest of Haast Junction, on the road to Jackson Bay.
Climate
Demographics
Haast town is described by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement, covering . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2. The settlement is part of the larger Haast statistical area.