Tongariro National Park is actually the 4th established National Park in the world & the oldest national park in New Zealand, located in central North Island. This National Park encompasses three active volcanoes (Tongariro, Ruapehu, and Ngauruhoe) located at the southern end of a 2,500-kilometer-long range of volcanoes. The National Park has two volcanoes on the northern end which erupted more than 20,000 years ago while one at non-Australian Plates meets the Pacific plate and has erupted due to internal tectonic processes, in recent Aug 2012.
These volcanoes have been together structured in the mountains of Tongariro National Park for over two million years. Moreover, Ruapehu is the world’s most active volcano & the largest active volcano in New Zealand. This has started to erupt at least 2.5 million years ago. However, major eruptions occurred about fifty years apart and minor eruptions almost every year.
An astonishing Crater Lake form actually fed melting snow, and it came into existence due to a major eruption. The Crater Lake’s vivid and radiant colors are caused by dissolved minerals leaching from eh surrounding rocks. At the close of Ruapehu is Mount Tongariro which comprises at least twelve volcanic cones. Therefore, Ngauruhoe often regarded as a separate mountain is geologically a cone of Tongariro.
This is the most active vent, erupted over 70 times since 1839, and last erupted in 1975. There are several explosion craters on the massif, several of which have been filled with water to form the Blue Lake and the Emerald Lakes. These lakes are famous due to scenic viewpoints along the “Tongariro Alpine Crossing” a celebrated one-day trek that traverses the otherworldly terrain along the slopes of all 3 mountains.
Furthermore, Mount Tongariro, Ruapehu, and its surrounding area were one of the many locations used to shoot the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the near-perfect conical shape of Ngauruhoe was the basis for Mount Doom. Tongariro National Park has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites.
There are 56 significant species of birds, like; rare endemic species such as North Island Brown Kiwi, Kākā, Blue Duck, North Island fernbird, Double-banded Plover, and Karearea. The National Park’s main activities are hiking and climbing in summer, skiing and snowboarding in winter and hunting, game fishing, mountain biking, horse riding, rafting, and scenic flights. The most popular track in Tongariro National Park is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and besides this, there are several shorter tracks appropriate for day tramps. Snow season starts in late June till early November.
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