'Recreation reserves' were created in the Hooker, Mueller and Tasman valleys in the late 1880s and later renamed 'Aorangi Domain' and 'Tasman Park' - but both were placed under the control of the Minister of Tourist and Health Resorts. On the West Coast, nearly 20, 000 hectares were reserved around the Franz Josef Glacier in 1914 to protect the glacial landscapes. Although the Godley and Classen Glaciers were added to the Tasman Park in 1927, it was not until 1953 that the Aorangi Domain and Tasman Park were combined and given full protective status as 'Mount Cook National Park' (now comprising 70, 728 hectares). Westland National Park was not formed until Westland's centennial year - 1960.

However, both parks were created at a time when there was little community support for protecting the full range of landscapes encompassing the Southern Alps. In the east the short tussock grasslands had been grazed under pastoral lease for nearly a century and there were designs on Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo for hydroelectricity generation. In the west, the national park was truncated, unable to extend "from the mountains to the Tasman Sea" because the West Coast community saw its prosperity in using the timber in the great lowland podocarp forests of Okarito and Waikukupa State Forests. A bitter conservation debate raged from the mid-1970s, until southern Okarito and all of Waikukupa forest were added to Westland National Park in 1982, bringing the park to a total area of 117, 547 ha.

For further reading: New Zealand: The National Parks contains a chapter on the park. Classic Tramping in New Zealand covers the Copland Pass in full detail. Canterbury: Christchurch to Mt Cook is an informative booklet which covers the entire region. There are two tramping guides which feature this area as well: Moirs Guide North covers Westland and Tramping in the South Island: Arthurs Pass to Mt Cook covers Mt. Cook. South Island Weekend Tramps covers two tramps in Westland and two in Mt. Cook.