[2] Westland was originally a part of Canterbury Province, administered from Christchurch, on the east coast.

About this time, the population relative to the rest of the country began to decline, as the easily accessible gold soon ran out and the conditions were not ideal for farming.

Recently, the population has begun to grow more quickly due to "lifestyle" residents moving into the district.

The district consists of a long, thin strip of land between the crest of the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea.

The low-lying areas near the coast are a mixture of pastoral farmland and temperate rainforest.

Westland temperate rainforests contain many conifers and receives high rates of precipitation due to orographic lifting caused by the Southern Alps.

The middle part of the district notably contains the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers.

In the early years of settlement in Westland, gold was a major commodity, bringing prospectors flocking into the area.

(Unlike the more northern parts of the West Coast, Westland has not developed coal mining.)

Recently, tourism has become more important, with drawcards such as the glaciers, and events such as the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival.