Regional parks of New Zealand are protected areas administered by regional councils, the top tier of local government. Regional parks are found across five regions of New Zealand: the Auckland Region, Waikato Region, Bay of Plenty Region, Wellington Region and Canterbury Region. Regional parks in the Auckland and Waikato regions are administered by the Auckland Council, while parks in other areas are administered by regional councils: the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Canterbury Regional Council.

History

Regional parks in New Zealand are large open spaces typically outside the metropolitan boundaries of cities; larger than city parks and smaller than the National parks of New Zealand. The first regional park in New Zealand was the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, which was established in 1964 when the Centennial Memorial Park of the Waitākere Ranges had its administration transferred from Auckland City Council to the Auckland Regional Authority. The first park purchased and established by the Auckland Regional Authority was Wenderholm Regional Park in 1965. East Harbour Regional Park, managed by the Greater Wellington Regional Council, was the first regional park established in the Wellington Region in 1979. The Local Government Act 2002 empowered other local government authorities outside of Auckland and Wellington to establish regional parks. The first of these was the Papamoa Hills Regional Park in the Bay of Plenty Region, established in 2004. The first regional park in the Canterbury Region was the Waimakariri River Regional Park, established in 2006/ In November 2010, local government reforms merged the different local government authorities of Auckland into a single unitary authority, the Auckland Council. During this process, areas of Franklin District and Manukau City were reassigned to the Waikato Region, including areas which included regional parks. Because of this, three regional parks are found in the northern Waikato, which are administered by the Auckland Council.

List of regional parks

This table lists current regional parks from north to south.

List of regional council administered areas

This table lists areas administered under regional park systems or by regional councils, from north to south.