Tongariro National Park

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Tongariro National Park is the oldest national park in New Zealand it is also the fourth oldest in the world. It is in the central North Island of New Zealand around 330 kilometres from Auckland.

Tongariro National Park is a double World Heritage area, a position which recognises the park's important Maori cultural and spiritual relations as well as its exceptional volcanic features.It encompasses the volcanoes of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. All the volcanoes are active but it doesn't discourage people from skiing down their slopes and hiking to their craters. A monitoring system gives early warning of eruptions.

A day trek that traverses the landscape between Ngauruhoe and Tongariro and has many steaming craters, old lava flows and thermal lakes is known as the 'Tongariro Alpine Crossing'. Many visitors find this trek an unforgettable experience. The lower slopes of the mountains are covered with forest, which provides a home for many native birds. New Zealand's only native mammals, short and long tailed bats, also live in the park.

Tongariro National Park History

Tongariro National Park was gifted to the nation by Maori chief Te Heuheu Tukino IV in 1887. The Mountains of this national park have deep spiritual significance for the Maori people. Legend has it that the high priest Ngatoroirangi was frozen in a snowstorm while exploring Tongariro and called to Hawaiki, the traditional Polynesian homeland of the Maori, for fire. His prayer was answered, via the channel we now call the Pacific Rim of Fire, and the mountain erupted.

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