Tongariro National Park

Tongariro National Park, established in 1887 and a UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1991, lies in the heart of the North Island, just to the south of Lake Taupo. It is about 350km south of Auckland and about the same distance north of Wellington.

Tongariro National Park headquarters and visitor center at Whakapapa provides general information, maps and descriptions of the various paths and trails.

The national park is open throughout the year. The skiing season on Mount Ruapehu usually lasts from June to October.

Since the weather in the national park is very changeable, warm clothing and protection against rain should be taken on a walk of any length. Stout footwear is necessary, particularly above the snowline. Good maps are essential, since the routes are not always waymarked. You should take sufficient food with you; water from streams in the park should be boiled because of the danger of parasites. The central features of the national park are the three volcanoes of Tongariro (1968m), Ngauruhoe (2291m) and Ruapehu (2797m). They are part of a chain of volcanoes that extends north by way of the volcanic White Island to the Kermadec and Tonga islands. These volcanoes, relatively young in geological terms, have repeatedly erupted in recent centuries, as attested by Maori legends and observations made since the European settlement, but have rarely caused catastrophic damage. The most serious recent incident was at Christmas in 1953, when the crater lake on Mount Ruapehu overflowed and a great volume of water and mud poured down, destroying the railroad bridge at Tangiwai, derailing the Wellington-Auckland express and killing 151 people. The last time the snow-capped Ruapehu showed any volcanic activity was in September 1995, when it spewed out huge mass of rock and lava and great rivers of mud flowed down its slopes.

Mount Tongariro, the most northerly of the three volcanoes, is also the lowest. Its summit is broken down into a number of craters. On the slopes of the hill, at Ketetahi, there is an active geothermal field, with hot springs, fumaroles and seething mud pools.

Mount Ngauruhoe is still active and there are frequently plumes of smoke and steam over its summit. A series of minor eruptions since 1954 have changed the form of the mountain, particularly on the west side.