Tongariro-Nationalpark

* This name is listed on the World Heritage List. ª The region is classified by UNESCO.

The Tongariro National Park (English Tongariro National Park ) is the oldest national park in New Zealand. The located in the center of the North Island extending Park is one of only 23 sites in both the World Cultural and Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The Tongariro National Park is the fourth oldest national park in the world. In the center of the park there are three active volcanoes: Tongariro (1968 m), Ngauruhoe ( 2291 m) and Ruapehu ( 2797 m).

In the area of the national park there are several places of worship of Māori who worship the volcanoes as sacred.

Geography

Location

The Tongariro National Park is located in the center of the North Island. In today's extent it covers an area of ​​approximately 795.98 square kilometers. The road distance to the northern Auckland is about 330 km to 320 km in the south of Wellington. The National Park forms the largest part of the so-called Central Volcanic Plateau. North north-east of the national park is the Lake Taupo, just east of the Kaimanawa mountains, while to the west of Whanganui flows ( with the eponymous national park in the middle).

Most of the Tongariro National Park is located in the Ruapehu District (Region Manawatu -Wanganui ), only the north-eastern part of the Taupo District ( Waikato region and in the East Region Hawke's Bay).

Expansion

The park includes the massif of the three volcanoes Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. In addition, still belong to the Rotopounamusee and the mountains Pihanga and Kakaramea ( Pihanga Scenic Reserve ), but about three kilometers north of the actual park area are, to the National Park.

Are right on the border of the park, the places National Park Village and Ohakune, a little further away Turangi, Waiouru and Raetihi. In the park itself there is only aimed at the tourism village of Whakapapa and the adjoining ski area, consists of merely huts Iwikau Village.

The Tongariro National Park is surrounded by well-maintained roads, which are also about the border of the National Park, and thus within easy reach. West leads the State Highway 4 past about National Park Village, east of State Highway 1 Taupo runs coming in parallel to the Tongariro River. The northern provides connection between these roads as the Desert Road known State Highway 47, the southern State Highway 49 also by the National Park Village and thus on the western border of the park along the railway line leading from Auckland to Wellington.

Climate

The Tongariro National Park is as throughout New Zealand in a temperate climate zone. The prevailing westerly winds in New Zealand to take on the Tasman Sea water. As the volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park apart from Taranaki are the first major land survey in the North Island, the mass of water from rain here and rains are thus observed almost daily. The differences between the west and east sides are not as great as for example, in New Zealand's Southern Alps, because the volcanoes are not part of a larger mountain range and there is a kind of chimney effect. The east side Rangipo Desert is considerably drier, can be seen as well on the adjacent satellite photo. In Whakapapa is the average rainfall at 2200 millimeters a year, in Ohakune at 1250 millimeters, and at higher altitudes, as in Iwikau Village at 4900 millimeters. The snow line is normally about 1500 meters. The temperatures fluctuate, sometimes even in the course of a day, very strong. You can fall below freezing in Whakapapa throughout the year. The average temperature is there 13 ° C, the maximum in summer is 25 ° C, the minimum in winter at -10 ° C. In some summers the peaks of three mountains remain snow covered, the Ruapehu always has snow fields and glaciers.

History

The peaks of the three volcanoes are for local Māori of great importance.

In order to prevent exploitation of the mountains by the white immigrants, gave Te Heuheu Tukino IV ( Horonuku ), head chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, in the name of his tribe on September 23, 1887 the core of today's national park consisting of the peaks of Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Share Ruapehu to the British Crown under the condition that the town to create a protection zone. This 26.40 square kilometer area was extensive but generally considered too small to establish a national park along the lines of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming ( USA), so still was bought more land. As the Tongariro National Park Act ( Tongariro National Park Act ) was passed by the New Zealand Parliament in October 1894, the park should be about 252.13 square kilometers, but lasted this land acquisitions to still until 1907. As in 1922, the law was renewed, this area was more than doubled to 586.80 square kilometers. Various extensions, especially the inclusion of lying outside the actual park areas in 1975 have, leave the park grow to its current size of 795.98 square kilometers. The last amendment was made in 1980. Since its founding in 1987, the park is under the Department of Conservation.

The first activities of the newly established Tongariro National Park consisted of the construction of some huts for tourists in the early 20th century. Only with the development of the railway in 1910 and the construction of roads in the 1930s, the area was visited but by a large number people. The second Tongariro National Park Act 1922 then the real beginning of an active landscape management was made. It took again until 1931 until the first permanently living in the park warden began its work. However, the road was extended in Whakapapatal and which is known as Chateau Tongariro Hotel built in 1929, which is the center of Whakapapa until today, in the 1920s. Also at this time, in 1923, the first ski lodge was built at an altitude of 1770 meters, later followed by a road, and in 1938 the first ski lift in this area. This early tourist development explains the rather unusual for a national park presence of a permanently inhabited village and a well-developed ski resort within the park boundaries.

Beginning of the 20th century was introduced by the park administration heather to allow the grouse shooting. Grouses but were never exposed, but the heather overgrown now wild and poses a threat to the ecosystem and endemic plants of the park represents the efforts now go there to prevent the further spread of this plant, since a complete eradication is not feasible.

In January 1991 the UNESCO declared the Tongariro National Park, a World Heritage Site. Two years later successes the appointment as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after had been altered at a conference in Berlin this year on the same criteria and since then also cultural landscapes can attain this status. The Committee stated, the Tongariro National Park is directly and tangibly with events, popular traditions, ideas and beliefs of global importance connected, representative of the culture of the Ngati Tuwharetoa, susceptible to irreversible changes, a representative of the interaction of human values ​​and cultural ideas about different periods of time, a place, take place at the important geological and geomorphische processes and contains exceptional natural beauty and excellent natural phenomena and a place that values ​​of outstanding importance from a scientific and natural or historical preservation point of view.

Various scenes from the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings were filmed in the Tongariro National Park. After the filming of the fight scenes were later renovation work in the park needed to eliminate damage. Mount Ngauruhoe is seen as Mount Doom in the movie.

Geology

The three volcanic mountains Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu form the southern end of a 2500 km long chain of volcanoes that are formed by the meeting of the Pacific to the Indian -Australian plate. All three volcanoes are still active.

Flora and Fauna

The Tongariro National Park is a harsh and unstable in parts of habitat dar. the north and west of the park covers an area of ​​30 square kilometers to an altitude of 1000 meters, a rainforest with podocarps, who survived the eruption of Taupo volcano. In it you will find the Hall's totara ( Podocarpus hallii ), the New Zealand Warzeneibe ( Dacrycarpus dacrydioides ), the Buntlaubigen Kamahibaum ( Weinmannia racemosa ) and the Pahautea ( Libocedrus bidwillii ) as well as a variety of epiphytic ferns, orchids and mushrooms. The Pahautea also covered even at higher altitudes up to 1530 meters, an additional area of ​​127.3 square meters. Furthermore you can find at this altitude a 50 -square-mile beech forest with red glow Book ( Nothofagus fusca ), silver glow Book ( Nothofagus menziesii) and Bergsüdbuchen ( Nothofagus solandri var cliffortioides ). A further 95 square kilometers of a shrubbery of Kanuka ( Leptospermum ericoides ), manuka ( Leptospermum scoparium ), Tasmanian Blatteibe ( Phyllocladus aspleniifolius ), the Austral Heath greenhouse Dracophyllum longifolium ( " grass tree"), grouper patens ( Racomitrium lanuginosum ) and small southern beech and the imposed heather covered. In the Northwest and around the Ruapehu is found 1200-1500 meters above sea level over greater distances (about 150 square kilometers) only tufts of Chionochloa rubra, grass tree, Dracophyllum recurvum, Empodisma minus, Schoenus pauciflorus and heather and grasses Zealand fescue ( Festuca novaezelandiae ) and Blue bluegrass ( Poa colensoi ). Over 1500 meters the terrain consists of stones and boulders and is correspondingly unstable. Nevertheless, some few plants settle there again and again. These include Dracophyllum recurvum, Schneesteineibe ( Podocarpus nivalis), the Scheinbeerenart Gaultheria colensoi, Rytidosperma setifolium, Blue bluegrass and Raoulia albosericea, together cover an area of 165 square kilometers. Between 1700 meters and 2020 meters, there are a few too many Parahebe species, Gentiana gellidifolia and buttercups. More than 2,200 meters but you can find then only lichens.

In the animal world, especially in vertebrates, are mainly the 56 different species of importance. Among them are so rare endemic species such as Northern brown kiwi, Kaka, Saumschnabelente ( Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus ), Matata ( Bowdleria punctata vealeae ) or double- banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus ) and Maori (Falco novaeseelandiae ). Frequently represented are also Tui ( Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae ) Makomako ( Anthornis melanura ), Neuseelandkuckuckskauz ( Ninox novaeseelandiae ) Maorigerygone ( Gerygone igata ), fantail ( Rhipidurinae ) and gray jacket white-eye ( Zosterops lateralis). Another special feature are also the only two endemic New Zealand species of mammals, the little New Zealand bat ( Mystacina tuberculata ) and Chalinolobus tuberculatus. In addition, it abounds in the Tongariro National Park of insects such as moths and wetas. A threat to these animals as well as for the entire ecosystem question - How in many parts of New Zealand - introduced by Europeans animals such as house rat, stoat, domestic cat and wild rabbits, various real rabbits, brushtail possum and red deer dar.

Activities

Its main activities are walking and hiking in the summer or skiing and snowboarding in winter. There is also the opportunity to hunt, to fish, mountain biking, horse riding, rafting and participate in sightseeing flights over the national park. The most popular hiking trail in the Tongariro National Park is probably the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a one-day hike, which is often counted among the most beautiful world. The route is mostly a section of the Tongariro Northern Circuit, a two - to four-day excursion, is recognized as one of the nine Great Walks of New Zealand. There are possible on these routes also Seitenabstecher among other things to the summits of Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. Another trail is the three-to six-day Round the Mountain track to Ruapehu. In addition, there are a few other shorter walking routes that are worthwhile for day trips. This route network, three campgrounds, two shelters, nine freely accessible public and four private cabins and facilities in Whakapapa the park is considered accessible to tourists, a further expansion of services is not currently planned.

The hiking routes can be walked in the winter as a high alpine tours. This applies all year for the ascent to the summit of Ruapehu. There are also opportunities for mountaineering. The winter sports season begins earlier than at the end of June and lasts at most to early November. The largest ski area ( also called Whakapapa ) is located on the western slopes of Ruapehu. It has 15 lifts and a total area of ​​55 square kilometers. Directly at the ski resort there are 47 private, operated by clubs huts, but most include the non - club members. The next place to stay then at the foot of the mountain in Whakapapa. Is only slightly smaller the Turoa ski area called the Southwest. While it only has nine lifts, the total area is 50 square kilometers, but with almost the same size. Directly at the ski resort there is no accommodation, the closest place is Ohakune. The two ski areas have now merged, so that for example the lift pass can be used in both areas. An elevator operator or a departure between the areas is still in the planning stage. Besides these two major ski resorts, there's the privately operated Desert from Alpine Ski Club and the Aorangi Ski Club Tukino ski resort in the southeast. It has two simple drag lifts and is 1.9 square kilometers in size.

Gallery

Emerald Lakes

Mount Tongariro

Crater rim of Mount Ngauruhoe

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