TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK: SACRED WORLD HERITAGE

Claire Fontaine visits Tongariro National Park

Today, The Grandma and her friends have visited Tongariro National Park on the north of New Zealand, a wonderful place where you can admire local species and climb up interesting mountains, some of them very special for The Grandma because as you know, she loves volcanoes.

During the trip to Tongariro, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Grammar 18).

More information: Functions I

 

Tongariro National Park is the oldest national park in New Zealand, located in the central North Island. It has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites.

Tongariro National Park was the fourth national park established in the world. The active volcanic mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro are located in the centre of the park.

There are a number of Māori religious sites within the park,  and many of the park's summits, including Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, are tapu, or sacred. The park includes many towns around its boundary including Ohakune, Waiouru, Horopito, Pokaka, Erua, National Park Village, Whakapapa skifield and Turangi.

Visiting Tongariro National Park

The Tongariro National Park is home to the famed Tongariro Alpine Crossing, widely regarded as one of the world's best one-day hikes.

It is just a few kilometres west-southwest of Lake Taupo. It is 330 km south of Auckland by road, and 320 km north of Wellington. It contains a considerable part of the North Island Volcanic Plateau. Directly to the east stand the hills of the Kaimanawa range. The Whanganui River rises within the park and flows through Whanganui National Park to the west.

Most of the park is located in the Ruapehu District, Manawatu-Wanganui Region, although the northeast is in the Taupo District, Waikato Region, or Hawke's Bay region to the north.

More information: UNESCO

Tongariro National Park stretches around the massif of the three active volcanoes Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe, and Mount Tongariro. The Pihanga Scenic Reserve, containing Lake Rotopounamu, Mount Pihanga and the Kakaramea-Tihia Massif, though separate from the main park area, is still part of the national park.

On the park borders are the towns of Turangi, National Park Village and Ohakune. Further away are Waiouru and Raetihi. Within the park borders, the only settlements are the tourism-based village at Whakapapa Village which consists solely of ski accommodation.

More information: Tongariro National Park

Two Maori kainga, settlements, Papakai and Otukou are not part of the park but lie on the shores of Lake Rotoaira between the Pihanga Scenic Reserve and the main park area.

Joseph contemplates Mount Ngauruhoe

Like the whole of New Zealand, Tongariro National Park is situated in a temperate zone. The prevailing westerly winds gather water over the Tasman Sea.

As the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park are the first significant elevations that these winds encounter on the North Island, besides Mount Taranaki, rain falls almost daily. The east-west rainfall differences are not as great as in the Southern Alps, because the three volcanoes do not belong to a greater mountain range, but there is still a noticeable rain shadow effect with the Rangipo desert on the Eastern leeward side receiving 1,000 mm of annual rainfall.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

In 1886 in order to prevent the selling of the mountains to European settlers, the local Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi had the mountains surveyed in the Native Land Court and then set aside as a reserve in the names of certain chiefs one of whom was Te Heuheu Tukino IV, Horonuku, the most significant chief of the Māori Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi.

Later the peaks of Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe, and parts of Mount Ruapehu, were conveyed to The Crown on 23 September 1887, on condition that a protected area was established there.

The park's volcanoes are the southern end of a 2500 km long range of volcanoes, below which the Australian Plate meets the Pacific Plate. These volcanoes have resulted from internal tectonic processes.  

Tina visits Taranaki Falls, Tongariro National Park

The Pacific Plate subducts under the Australian plate, and subsequently melts due to the high temperatures of the aesthenosphere. This magma being less dense, rises to the surface and goes through the weak parts of the Earth's crust resulting in volcanic processes in the area.

Volcanic processes have been building the mountains of Tongariro National Park for over two million years. Three volcanoes, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, remain active, while the park's two northernmost volcanoes, Pihanga and the Kakaramea-Tihia Massif, last erupted over 20,000 years ago. They have however produced significant historic mudflows.

Erosion and deposition by mountain glaciers has also played an important role in shaping Tongariro and Ruapehu volcanoes. Small glaciers are present on the summit of Mt. Ruapehu today, however there is abundant geomorphological evidence for more extensive glaciation in the recent geological past. Glaciers were last present on Tongariro during the Last Glacial Maximum. 

More information: Visit Ruapehu

There are 56 significant species of birds, such as rare endemic species like the North Island brown kiwi, kākā, blue duck, North Island fernbird, double-banded plover and New Zealand falcon/kārearea. Other bird species common to the park are tui, New Zealand bellbird, morepork/ruru, grey warbler/riroriro, fantail, whitehead/pōpokotea and silvereye. The park also features the only two native mammals of New Zealand, the short and long tailed bat.

Claire follows the Tongariro Alpine Crossing

The Tongariro National Park also teems with insects like moths and wetas. Also present in the park, as well as the whole of New Zealand, are animals introduced by Europeans, such as black rats, stoats, cats, rabbits, hare, possums and red deer.

The Tongariro National Park is a rough and partly unstable environment. In this rain forest live Hall's totara, kahikatea, kamahi, pahautea, and numerous epiphytic ferns, orchids, and fungi. Pahautea trees can be found further on up to a height of 1530 m. On this level, one can also find a 50 km2 beech forest, containing red silver and mountain beech. Understory species within the forests include ferns such as crown fern as well as shrub species.  There is also an area of scrubland, containing kanuka, manuka, celery-top pine, inaka, woolly fringe moss,bsmall beeches and introduced heather.

More information: Backpacker Guide

The main activities are hiking and climbing in summer, and skiing and snowboarding in winter. There is also opportunity for hunting, game fishing, mountain biking, horse riding, rafting and scenic flights. Mount Tongariro and its surroundings are one of the several locations where Peter Jackson shot The Lord of the Rings film trilogy; tours to view these places are commonly arranged by the tour's operators and lodges.

The most popular track in Tongariro National Park is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Most of the track is also part of the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a two- to four-day tour, which is one of New Zealand's nine Great Walks. Side trips to the summits of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe are possible on these tracks.

More information: Tongariro Alpine Crossing

One place that I looked at a lot from space and which looks

alluring is New Zealand, especially the North Island.

It's a big broad valley with a river flowing through it,

and you can see the wine-making dryness of the land.

Chris Hadfield