Volcanoes Near Rotorua

Rotorua, Taupo and much of the central North Island lie in an area geologists call the Taupo Volcanic Zone. It is a very distinctive area of mountains, lakes and a landscape that everywhere bears the trace of volcanic activity. Gerald Cubitt and Les Molloy, the authors of "Wild New Zealand", have the following to say about the area:

"The Taupo Volcanic Zone can be thought of as a southern terminus of the great Pacific Ring of Fire which extends down the western Pacific from the Tongan Islands through the Kermadec Islands to the Bay of Plenty. The Zone contains, in White Island and Tongariro National Park, some of the most continuously active volcanoes in the world."

Within the Taupo Volcanic Zone there are three volcanoes still active: Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Ngarahoe (all are located in Tongariro National Park). All three have erupted fairly often in the last few hundred years. Ruapehu and Ngarahoe are two of the most continuously active composite volcanoes in the world. Volcanic eruptions have been the cause of two very well known disasters in the last 150 years. The Mount Tarawera Eruption in 1886 killed over 150 people near Rotorua, and destroyed the famed Pink & White Terraces. On Christmas Eve, 1953, an eruption of Ruapehu caused a mud-lava flow that destroyed a railway bridge. This led to an horrific rail crash that killed 151 people.