Tongariro National Park
| Tongariro | ||
| Designation | National Park | |
| Location | North Island New Zealand | |
| Nearest City | National Park, New Zealand | |
| Coordinates | 39°12′ S 175°35′ E | |
| Area | 79598 ha | |
| Date of Establishment |
October 1894 | |
| Visitation | approx. 1 million p. a. | |
| Governing Body | Department of Conservation | |
| IUCN category | II (National Park) | |
| Address | Whakapapa Visitor Centre Private Bag Mount Ruapehu 2650 | |
| Phone Fax E-Mail-Address | +64 7 8923729 +64 7 8923814 whakapapavc@doc.govt.nz | |
Tongariro National Park is the oldest National Park in New Zealand. It is located on the central North Island of New Zealand. It has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of only twenty three cultural and natural World Heritage Sites.
Tongariro National Park was the fourth National Park established in the world. The volcanic mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro are located in the centre of the park.
There are a number of Maori religious sites within the park. Several of the mountain summits are worshiped as tapu.
Table of contents |
Geography
Location
Tongariro National Park covers approximately 795,98 square kilometres stretching between 175° 22' and 175° 48' East and 38° 58' and 39° 25' South in the heart of the North Island of New Zealand. It is 330 kilometres south of Auckland by road, and 320 kilometres north of Wellington. It is just a few kiloemters west-southwest of Lake Taupo. 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 of National Park lies to the west.
Most of the park is located in the Ruapehu District (Manawatu-Wanganui Region), although the northeast belongs to the Taupo District (Waikato Region or Hawke's Bay Region in the North).
Dimension
Tongariro National Park stretches around the massif of the three volcanoes Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro. The Pihanga Scenic Reserve (containing Lake Rotopounamu, Mount Pihanga and Mount Kakaramea) outside the actual park area also belongs to the park.
At the park borders are the small towns of National Park Village and Ohakune. Further away are Turangi, Waiouru and Raetihi. Within the park borders the only settlements are the tourism-based village of Whakapapa and in the nearby ski field, Iwikau Village, which consists solely of ski huts. Tongariro National Park is surrounded by well maintained roads, which roughly reflect the park borders and provide easy access. In the west State Highway 4 passes National Park village, in the east State Highway 1 from Taupo runs parallel to the Tongariro River. The northern conjunction between these two highways is State Highway 47, better known as Dessert Road. The southern link is State Highway 49. The railway trunk from Auckland to Wellington also passes National Park Village.
Climate
As the whole of New Zealand Tongariro National Park is situated in a temperate zone. The prevailing westerly winds are gathering water over the Tasman Sea. As the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park are the first notable elevations beside Mount Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island, rain falls occur almost every day. The differences are not as big as on the Southern Alps, because the three volcanoes do not belong to a greater mountain range and the wind funnels over the summits. In Whakapapa the average annual rainfall adds up to about 2200 millimetres, in Ohakune to about 1250 millimetres and in higher altitudes like Iwikau Village to about 4900 millimetres. In winter the snow level is normally about 1500 metres. Temperatures vary, partly within a day, dramatically. In Whakapapa they can fall below the freezing point all year round. The average temperature there is 13° C, with a maximum of 25° C in summer and a minimum of −10° C in winter. In some summers the summits of the three volcanoes are covered with snow, on top of Mount Ruapehu snow fields can be found in every summer and the summit is glaciated.
History
The mountain summits are of great significance for the local Maori. To prevent an exploitation of the mountains by the white immigrants, Te Heuheu Tukino IV (Horonuku), the paramount chief of the Maori Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi, gifted the heart of the nowadays national park consisting of the peaks of Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe und parts of Mount Ruapehu to The Crown on September 23, 1887 on condition to establish a protected area there. This 26,40 square kilometres enclosing area was generally considered to be too small to establish a national park after the model of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (USA). Therefore further areas were bought. When the New Zealand parliament passed the Tongariro National Park Act in October 1894, the park should cover an area of about 252,13 square kilometres, but it took until 1907 to acquire the land. When the act was renewed in 1922 the park area was extended to 586,80 square kilometres. Further extensions, especially the affiliation of Pihanga Scenic Reserve in 1975, let the park area grow to its today size of 795,98 square kilometres. The last modification to the act was passed in 1980. Since its formation in 1987 Tongariro National Park is under the control of the New Zealand Department of Conservation. The first activities in the young Tongariro National Park were the construction of tourist huts at the beginning of the 20th century. But it was not before the coverage by railroad around 1910 and the building of road in the 1930s, that a greater amount of people were visiting the park. The second Tongariro National Park Act in 1922 was the start for some active conservation, but it took until 1931 until the first permanent residing ranger started his work. But the road constructions into Whakapapa valley had already begun in the 1920s, the hotel Chateau Tongariro, which is still the centre of Whakapapa today, was erected in 1929. Also the first ski hut was built in 1923 in an elevation of 1770 metres, thereafter a road and in 1938 a ski lift in the area. This early tourist development explains the rather uncommon existence of a permanent inhabited village and a fully developed ski area within a national park. In the early 20th century the park administration introduced heather to the park for grouse hunting. Grouse were actually never introduced, but the heather is sprawling and a thread to for the ecological system and the endemic plants of the park. Efforts are made to control the spread, an extinction seems impossible. In January 1991 the UNESCO declared Tongariro National Park a natural world heritage site. Two years later it became also a cultural world heritage site, just after the criteria were changed on a conference in Berlin so that cultural landscapes can achieve the status. The explanatory statement was that
- "it is directly and tangibly associated with events, living traditions, ideas and beliefs of universal significance, it is representative of the culture of Ngati Tuwharetoa and is vulnerable to impacts and irreversible change, it represents an interchange of human values and cultural ideas over time, [...]significant ongoing geological processes and geomorphic features, it contains superlative natural phenomena and exceptional natural beauty [as well as] values of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science and conservation."
Geology
Three volcanoes, Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu, build the southern end of a 2500 kilometer long range of volcanoes below which the Indo-Australian Plate meets the Pacific Plate. All three volcanoes are still active.
Biology
The Tongariro National Park is a rough and partly instable environment. To the north and west of the park a Podocarp-broadleaf rain forest that survived the outbreak of what is now Lake Taupo, stretches over an area of 30 square kilometres up to height of 1000 metres. In this rain forest live Hall's Totara (Podocarpus hallii), Kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides), Kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa), Pahautea (Libocedrus bidwillii) and numerous epiphytic ferns, orchids and fungi. Pahautea trees can be found further on up to a height of 1530 metres where they cover 127,3 square kilometres. On this level one can also find a 50 square kilometres covering beech forest containing Red (Nothofagus fusca), Silver (Nothofagus menziesii) and Mountain Beech (Nothofagus solandri var cliffortioides). There is also a 95 square kilometres covering area of scrublands containing Kanuka (Leptospermum ericoides), Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), Celery-top-pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius), Inaka (Dracophyllum longifolium), Woolly Fringe Moss(Rhacomitrium lanuginosum), small beeches and the introduced heather. To the northwest and around Mount Ruapehu between an altitude of 1200 and 1500 metres tussock shrubland and tussockland cover large areas (around 150 square kilometres) consisting mainly of New Zealand Red Tussock Grass (Chionochloa rubra), Inaka, Curled Leaved Neinei (Dracophyllum recurvum), Wire Rush (Empodisma minus) and Bog Rush (Schoenus pauciflorus) as well as heather and grasses like Hard Tussock (Festuca novaezelandiae) or Bluegrass (Poa colensoi). Above 1500 metres the terrain consists of gravel and stone fields and is accordingly unstable. Nevertheless some plants settle there from time to time. Among them are Curled Leaved Neinei, Snow Totara (Podocarpus nivalis), Mountain Snowberry (Gaultheria colensoi), Bristle Tussock (Rytidosperma setifolium), Bluegrass and Raoulia albosericea which cover all together an area of 165 square kilometres. Between 1700 and 2020 metres there are some isolated Parahebe species, Gentiana gellidifolia and Buttercups. Above 2200 metres live only crustose lichens.
In fauna, especially among the vertebrates, the 56 different bird species are significant. Among them are so rare endemic species like the North Island Brown Kiwi, Kaka, Blue Duck, North Island Fernbird (Bowdleria punctata vealeae) or Double-banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus) and Karearea. Other birds common to the park are Tui, New Zealand Bellbird, Southern Boobook, Grey Warbler (Gerygone igata), fantails and Silvereye. Another feature are the two only native mammals of New Zealand, the Short and Long Tailed Bat (Mystacina tuberculata and Chalinolobus tuberculatus). The Tongariro National Park also teems of insects like moths and wetas. A thread to this endemic animals as well as for the whole ecological system are, as in the whole of New Zealand, the animals introduced by the Europeans like black rats, stoats, cats but also rabbits, different species of hare, possums and red deer.
Activities
The main activities are hiking and climbing in summer and [skiing]] and snowboarding in winter. Beside these activities there are possibilities for hunting, game fishing, mountain biking, horse riding, rafting and scenic flights. The most popular track in Tongariro National Park is the Tongariro Crossing that is often judged as one of the most beautiful one day tours in the world. Most of the track is also part of the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a two to four days 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. Another route is the three to six day lasting Round the Mountain Track around Mount Ruapehu. Beside these there are numerous shorter tracks appropriate for day tramps. With this track net, three camp sites, two emergency shelters, nine public, four private huts and the facilities in Whakapapa the park is tourist wise fully developed, further improvements and extensions are not planed. The above mentioned tracks also serve as winter routes as well as the track to the summit of Mount Ruapehu. Rock-climbing is also an option. Snow season is at most from end of July to early November. The biggest ski area (also called Whakapapa) is on the western slope of Mount Ruapehu. It has 15 lift and covers an area of 55 square kilometres. Directly next to the ski field are 47 ski club huts, most of them accommodate also non-club members. The next settlement is on bottom in Whakapapa. Just a little bit smaller is the ski field called Turoa on the south-western slope. Though it has only nine lifts, the ski area with 50 square kilometres is almost as big as Whakapapa. There is no accommodation possible directly at the ski field, the next town is Ohakune. These two ski fields have merged in 2000, so for instance ski passes can be used on both fields. A lift or run from one field to the other is planned. Beside these major ski fields there is also the Tukino ski area privately run by the Desert Alpine Ski Club and the Aorangi Ski Club on the south-eastern slope. It has two T-bar lifts and covers 1,9 square kilometres.