Gift of peaks the start of Parks

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 17, 22 September 1987, Page 15

Gift of peaks the start of Parks

This article is taken from the centennial edition of the Tongariro National Park Journal, and was written by Chris Rudge and Sue Weston

100 years ago something special happened; New Zealand received its first national park. Tongariro National Park, created on 23 September 1887, was a milestone in the protection of our natural areas. It was the first national park in the world to be gifted by an indigenous people. That makes it unique. To set aside the central North Island mountains required foresight and generosity. Horonuku Te Heuheu Tukino, a

paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa, had these qualities. To Horonuku and Ngati Tuwharetoa the mountains were sacred. They still are. Ngati Tuwharetoa can trace their ancestry back to Ngatoroirangi, a navigator and high priest from the great Arawa Canoe. Ngatoro became the first person to scale any of the mountains when he ascended Ngauruhoe to claim the area for his peo-

ple. As hc reached the mountain's summit with several followers, a storm suddenly caught the group in the open. There was nowhere to shelter from the bitterly cold wind and they suffered. Near to death, Ngatoro called on his priestess sisters in Hawaiiki to send him fire. To add strength to his prayer, he slew a

slave named Auruhoe. Volcanic fire soon spread south-eastwards from Hawaiiki, bursting forth at Whakaari (White Island), Rotorua, and Taupo. The fire finally burst forth at his feet, welling up from a large vent in the mountain's summit. He was saved! As a gesture for his prayers being answered, and to please Ruaumoko, the God of Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Ngatoro threw the body of Auruhoe into the fiery crater below. It is from this sacrifice that the name of Auruhoe is preserved in the name of New Zealand's most active volcano, Ngauruhoe. The word Tongariro (seized by the south wind) also originates from this ancient legend. LINK This early link with the mountains has remained throughout time. They have remained tapu (sacred) in legend and in everyday life. It was forbidden to walk on the mountains and it is said that Maori people who walked through the Rangipo Desert wore leaves on the sides of their

heads to prevent them from glancing at the sacred peaks. The mountains were also a place of burial. The great chief Mananui, father of Horonuku, was buried on the side of Tongariro after he was killed in a huge landslide which engulfed the village of Te Rapa in 1846. Horonuku (which means landslide) was named in memory of his father. Because Horonuku treated the mountains as his ancestors, he was naturally concerned when early pakeha explorers showed interest in the area for grazing. He did not want sheep to be walking on the heads of his ancestors as this was considered a great insult. Further problems occurred in 1884 when Ngati Tuwharetoa were faced with boundary disputes. They had already survived a challenge from Keepa Te Rangihiwinui Taitoko, who had tried to claim the mountains for the Whanganui people. The second dispute involved land to the north-west. Ngati Tuwharetoa applied to the Native Land Court for clarification of this

boundary but, on the eve of the hearing, Horonuku was told that the whole of the Tuwharetoa Taupo-nui-a-tia lands were being investigated to see who were the rightful owners. Horonuku was deeply concerned. CONCERN Horonuku was not the only person concerned over the future of the mountains. Prior to the hearing, the area had caught the attention of several Pakeha who were interested in reserving the land for tourism. William Fox, a New Zealand explorer and artist turned politician, had a particular interest in protecting thermal areas from commercial development after he visited Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Fox was convinced that, unless the government took action to acquire land, New Zealand's thermal wonders would be "Surrounded with pretentious hotels and scarcely less offensive tea gardens" and "...that they would be strewed with orange peel, with walnut shells, and the capsules of bitter beer bottles (as the Great Pyramid and even the summit of Mount Sinai are)."