Fire dies down, reveals damage

The blaze at full fury. Photo: Mark Funnell

Wet weather and a lack of wind has turned the tide in favour of firefighters battling a huge blaze in Tongariro National Park.

By Dan Hutchinson

Attention is now turning to restoration with the Department of Conservation and mana whenua contemplating years of work to ensure the World Heritage site does not get overrun by weeds like gorse, broom, blackberry and heather.

DoC director for the Central North Island Damian Coutts says firefighters were able to save important visitor assets like the Mangetpopo end of the track and the Mangatepopo Hut, and important cultural installations.

“That meant the Tongariro Northern Circuit, Tongariro Crossing and the Around the Mountain track should be able to reopen soon after Fire and Emergency FENZ gives the all-clear.

“We are in an incredibly fortunate position from a recreational point of view to have saved many of our visitor assets but the impact on biodriversity is going to be significant”

Containment lines prepared by firefighters have so-far stopped the spread of the fire into Whakapapa Village and the beech forest and kiwi habitat adjacent to SH48.

“We were lucky to stop it where we did but it is still an incredibly large area of burn and it is still going on out there, he said on Monday afternoon.

The area of the burn included alpine shrubland and tussock species.

Coutts said they would not know the full extent of the biodiversity damage until an ecologist had assessed the damage but there would be a large loss of insects, native orchids and bird species which would have been “displaced sideways” into surrounding habitat.

FENZ district commander Nigel Dravitzki said the fire front had now been stopped in its tracks thanks to the favourable weather conditions and fire activity had slowed considerably. The focus of firefighting had shifted to ground crews reinforcing workers preparing containment lines on the flanks of the fire.

About 120 people were evacuated during the height of the fire, including 42 trampers plus residents and workers at Whakapapa Village.

Residents were being allowed to return to their homes on Monday afternoon but those carrying out commercial operations at their homes were not allowed clients or visitors on their properties. That would be reassessed within 24 hours Dravitski said.

He said they had been working together with Department of Conservation, Tūwharetoa, Police, Civil Defence, Ruapehu District Council and Horizons Regional Council.

“We are in conversation with all our partners about next steps and how we transition managment of this whenua back to its custodians, iwi and DoC.

“We expect to be firefighting here for several days, there will be lots of hard, physical mop-up that will be required so it is still an active fireground, so contingencies are in place in case less rain is forecast but we will be here as long as we are needed.”

Te Ngaehe Wanikau - leader of Tūwharetoa hapu Ngāti Hikairo - said three marae were opened up to cater for the firefighters and evacuees, with staging posts the length of State Highway 47, about 40km.

“From Day 1 these marae were open taking evacuees, tourists, whoever needed shelter.”

“The maunga will recover and it will be stronger than before this.”

He said the burnt area will be the subject of a “restorative rahui” for 10 years, meaning only those working on restoration efforts would be allowed to go there.

Their “greatest nightmare” would be to see introduced pest plants thriving at the expense of the native flora and fauna.

“We do not want 1800-2000 hectares of what is World Heritage to be covered in gorse and blackberry and by then it has gone in the too hard basket so we want the restoration to be an immediate response.”

Te Ririo survives the fire

Surrounded by charred scrubland is a carved pou, representing the guardian of the surrounding whenua.

Wanikau says Te Ririo is the guardian for that area and the pou was erected to protect the visitors and the land itself.

“You might say ‘well Te Ririo didn’t do that good a job’ however there is always a silver lining and the area where Te Ririo is still green and Te Ririo is still untouched and the fire is all around it.”

The pou has some charring on one side but is otherwise intact. It was only erected on November 1 last year.