Taupo & the Central Plateau - New Zealand - page 455

Sights
1 Lake Rotokura B6
2 National Army Museum C6
3 Tongariro National Trout Centre D2
Activities, Courses & Tours
4 Mountain Air B3
5 Ruapehu Homestead A6
6 Tokaanu Thermal Pools D1
7 Tukino Ski Area C4
8 Wades Landing Outdoors A3
Sleeping
9 Discovery Lodge B3
10 Mangahuia DOC Campsite B3
11 Oreti Village D1
12 Tongariro Family Holiday Park C2
Eating
13 Lakeland House D1
Geologically speaking, the Tongariro volcanoes are relatively young. Both Ruapehu
and Tongariro are less than 300,000 years old. They were shaped by a mixture of erup-
tions and glacial action, especially in the last ice age. At one time, glaciers extended
down Ruapehu to below 1300m, leaving polished rock far below their present snouts.
Mt Ruapehu ( www.mtruapehu.com ) , at 2797m, is the highest mountain on the North Is-
land. It is also one of the world's most active volcanoes. One eruption began in March
1945 and continued for almost a year, spreading lava over Crater Lake and sending huge
dark clouds of ash as far away as Wellington. No wonder, then, that the mountain's name
translates as 'pit of sound'.
Ruapehu rumbled in 1969 and 1973, but its worst disaster was on Christmas Eve 1953,
when a crater lake lip collapsed. An enormous lahar swept down the mountainside, tak-