Tongariro National Park

About

Tongariro National Park (; Māori: [tɔŋaɾiɾɔ]), located in the central North Island, is the oldest national park in New Zealand and the sixth national park established in the world. It has been recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its mixed cultural and natural values. The active volcanic mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro are located in the centre of the park. Three ski fields operate from the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, and the park is also a popular recreation area for hiking, fishing, hunting and other outdoor pursuits. Tongariro National Park is home to the famed Tongariro Alpine Crossing, widely regarded as one of the world's best one-day hikes. The natural environment of the park ranges from temperate rainforest to beech forest, tussock shrubland and alpine ecosystems. A variety of endemic and native birds and plants are found in 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. There are many small towns around the boundary of the park including Ohakune, Waiouru, Horopito, Pokaka, Erua, Waimarino (also known as National Park Village) and Tūrangi.

In Māori legend the volcanoes in Tongariro National Park are personified. Various versions of the basic story exist: Tongariro and Taranaki were both in love with Ruapehu or Pihanga and had a great battle. Taranaki lost the battle and fled west towards the coast, carving out the Whanganui River on the way. The Tama Lakes ( Māori : Ngā puna a Tama ), two crater lakes between Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe, are said to represent the gap left when Taranaki departed.

In 2017, the Department of Conservation issued a notice advising visitors not to climb to the summits of the mountains in Tongariro National Park because they are sacred to local iwi. Some Māori view the mountains as their ancestors, with the peaks being the heads of the ancestors, and believe it is wrong to stand on the heads of the ancestors. The notice also asked tourist operators to "remove all references to summit side trips or ascending peaks in the park, remove any images of people touching or swimming in sacred lakes and to stop referring to Mt Ngauruhoe as Mt Doom ". Following the advisory notice, Department of Conservation staff noticed a significant decrease in the number of people summiting mountains in the park.

The park falls within the tribal areas ( rohe ) of two main iwi: Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangi. The northern and western parts of the park, extending south to the summit of Ruapehu, belong to Ngāti Tūwharetoa while Ngāti Rangi's area includes the southern and south-western flank of Ruapehu. Other iwi with traditional interests in the park are the upper Whanganui iwi Ngāti Hāua and Te Korowai o Wainuiārua from the Whanganui River.

The Waitangi Tribunal's national park inquiry in 2004 to 2013 investigated Treaty of Waitangi claims relating to Tongariro National Park. In July 2018, the Crown met representatives of some iwi and it was agreed that negotiations would be delayed until all groups with interests in the park had had their settlements progressed, at which time cultural redress would be developed. The cultural redress process seeks to protect spiritually significant sites, recognise the traditional relationships of iwi with the environment, and give claimants greater power to participate in managing the places involved.

According to Māori oral history, Ngāti Tūwharetoa ancestor Ngātoro-i-rangi climbed the volcanoes 30 generations ago, naming Tongariro and other landscape features and claiming the area for his descendants.

Around 1750, Te Rangihiroa, son of local chief Pakaurangi, was said to have explored the area around the volcanoes in the park. The Māori name for Blue Lake, near the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, is Te Wai-whakaata-o-te-Rangihiroa, which can be translated as 'Rangihiroa's mirror'. Te Rangihiroa's sister was Te Maari, whose name was given to the Te Maari craters on Tongariro.

John Bidwill is thought to be the first European to climb Mount Ngauruhoe, in March 1839. His Māori guides refused to take him to the summit because it was sacred or tapu, so Bidwill climbed alone. He was met with anger when he returned to the village from which he had started. Bidwill may also have climbed Mount Tongariro. The chief Mananui Te Heu Heu Tūkino II then placed a tapu on the area. Dieffenbach, Governor George Grey and Hochstetter were denied permission to ascend the volcanoes, and the artist George French Angas was forbidden from sketching the mountains.

Mananui and many of his family died in a landslide in 1846. His body and that of his wife were put into a pataka (a storehouse raised on poles) at Pukawa, and later taken to a burial cave on Mount Tongariro. In 1910, Mananui's remains were reinterred in a tomb at Waihī.

Henry Dyson made an ascent of Ngauruhoe in March 1851, defying Mananui's tapu but with the support of Te Herekiekie of Tokaanu. Pierce Connelly, an artist, climbed Ngauruhoe in 1877 and William Collie, photographer, climbed Ngauruhoe in 1878. Both were stripped of their belongings for breaking the tapu on the mountain. Donald Manson, a watch salesman from the United States, climbed Ngauruhoe in 1881 after paying Māori £10 for permission to do so.

With the mountain summits being of great significance to local Māori, and in order to prevent the selling of the mountains to European settlers, in 1886 the Ngāti Tūwharetoa 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 these chiefs was Te Heuheu Tūkino IV (Horonuku), son of Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II and the most significant chief of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi. 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.

Opposition to Te Heuheu's gift came from Te Moanapapaku Te Huiatahi. Te Huiatahi petitioned Parliament on behalf of 180 people, stating that most of Tongariro belonged to him, not Te Heuheu. He stated that he owned the land by ancestry and occupation and said his hapū had 200 whare (dwellings) on the land in question. Te Huiatahi's claim was denied.

The 26.4 km 2 (10.2 sq mi) area given by Te Heu Heu was generally considered to be too small to establish a national park, so further areas were acquired. When the New Zealand Parliament passed the Tongariro National Park Act in October 1894, the park covered an area of about 252.13 km 2 (97.35 sq mi), but it took until 1907 for the government to acquire the land.

In 1908, a scientific party consisting of botanist Leonard Cockayne, forester and surveyor Edward Phillips Turner and geologist Robert Speight spent several months exploring and surveying the park. They presented a report to Parliament detailing the flora, fauna and geology of the region, and recommended that the park's boundaries be expanded. Cockayne also noted that it was important to protect the environment from development and introduced pests.

The park area was extended to 586.8 km 2 (226.6 sq mi) when the Act was renewed in 1922. Further extensions, especially Pihanga Scenic Reserve in 1975, enlarged the park to its current size of 795.96 km² (307.32 sq mi). Tongariro National Park is managed under the National Parks Act 1980. Tongariro National Park has been under the control of the New Zealand Department of Conservation since the creation of the department in 1987.

A sculpture and plaque at the visitor centre in Whakapapa Village commemorate Te Heuheu's gift to New Zealand.

The first development in Tongariro National Park was the construction of tourist huts at the beginning of the 20th century, but it was not until the opening of the North Island Main Trunk railway line between Auckland and Wellington in 1908 and the building of roads in the 1920s that a significant number of people visited the park. This early tourist development explains the rather uncommon existence of a permanently inhabited village and fully developed ski area within a national park. Skiing on the mountains in the park became popular from about 1914, when the Ruapehu Ski Club was established. The first ski hut was built on Mt Ruapehu in 1923 at an elevation of 1770 m, and a ski lift was constructed in 1938–1939. The second Tongariro National Park Act, in 1922, started some active conservation efforts, and in 1923 a park ranger was appointed.

The first motor vehicle reached Whakapapa village via the Bruce Road in August 1925, after the previous rough cart track was upgraded by prison labour and a bridge was built over the Whakapapa River. This led to an influx of tourists and demands for more accommodation at Whakapapa. The hotel Chateau Tongariro at Whakapapa opened in 1929 with 95 bedrooms and associated cheaper lodges for trampers. The road was extended beyond Whakapapa Village after World War 2. Road access to the park was further improved in the 1960s with the development of roads needed for building the Tongariro Power Scheme.

In 1990, New Zealand nominated Tongariro National Park as a World Heritage Site. World Heritage Sites are places protected under a treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific heritage considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. The government's nomination stated that the park was valuable under the 'Natural Property' category for its chain of volcanoes aligned along a tectonic plate boundary, showing Earth's evolutionary history; its ongoing geological processes and associated plant environments; and its outstanding natural phenomena and beauty. Mount Ruapehu was said to be the "most active composite volcano in the world", making it ideal for scientific observation. Crater Lake on Mount Ruapehu was stated to be unique due to its glacial setting and frequent eruptions, making it a case study of the lahar -producing interaction of magma and lake water. The park was listed for its natural features in 1990, and in 1993 it achieved dual heritage status for having both natural values and Māori cultural and spiritual significance. This was the first national park in the world to have its spiritual significance recognised as a "cultural landscape", an initiative supported by Tumu Te Heuheu of Ngati Tūwharetoa.

According to Māori oral history, Ngāti Tūwharetoa ancestor Ngātoro-i-rangi climbed the volcanoes 30 generations ago, naming Tongariro and other landscape features and claiming the area for his descendants.