Highest Mountains in New Zealand

Geology

The Southern Alps in the South Island were formed by tectonic uplifting and pressure as the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates collided along the island's western coast. The uplifting continues, raising Aoraki / Mount Cook an average of 7 millimetres (0.28 in) each year. However, erosive forces are also powerful shapers of the mountains. The severe weather is due to the mountain's jutting into powerful westerly winds of the Roaring Forties which run around approximately 45°S latitude, south of both Africa and Australia. The Southern Alps are the first obstacle the winds encounter after South America, having moved east across the Southern Ocean.

Climbing history

The first recorded attempt on the summit was made by the Irishman Rev. William S. Green, the Swiss hotelier Emil Boss, and the Swiss mountain guide Ulrich Kaufmann on 2 March 1882 via the Tasman and Linda Glaciers. They came within a few feet of the top, as did the 1890 ascent attempt by Mannering and Dixon.

The first known ascent was on 25 December 1894, when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, John Michael (Jack) Clarke and George Graham reached the summit via the Hooker Valley and the north ridge. Despite an earlier failed attempt on 20 December, the local climbers were spurred on by their desire for the first ascent to be made by New Zealand mountaineers amid reports that the American mountaineer Edward FitzGerald had his eye on the summit.

Māori history, legends and traditions

According to Māori legend, Aoraki was a young boy who, along with his three brothers, were the sons of Rakinui, the Sky Father. On their voyage around the Papatūānuku, the Earth Mother, their canoe became stranded on a reef and tilted. Aoraki and his brothers climbed onto the top side of their canoe. However, the south wind froze them and turned them to stone. Their canoe became the Te Waka o Aoraki, the South Island, and their prows, the Marlborough Sounds. Aoraki, the tallest, became the highest peak, and his brothers created the Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, the Southern Alps.

Ngāi Tahu, the main iwi (tribe) of New Zealand's southern region, consider Aoraki as the most sacred of the ancestors that they had descended from.

Local climate

Aoraki / Mount Cook receives substantial orographic precipitation throughout the year, as breezy, moisture-laden westerly winds dominate all year-round, bringing rainclouds from the Tasman Sea with them.

Annual precipitation around the mountain ranges varies greatly as the local climate is dominated by the eastward movement of depressions and anticyclones from across the Tasman Sea. The Aoraki / Mount Cook massif is a major obstacle to the prevailing westerly winds as they push depressions and associated cold fronts of moist air from the subtropics in the northwest against the mountain range. As the air rises towards the peaks, it expands and cools, and forms clouds.

Geography

Ruapehu is located in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand, 23 km (14 mi) northeast of Ohakune, New Zealand, and 23 km (14 mi) southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupō, within Tongariro National Park. Ruapehu is the largest and southernmost volcano in the national park, with an estimated volume of 110 km3 (26 cu mi). The volcano is surrounded by a ring plain of volcanic material, made from lahar deposits, ash fall, and landslide debris.

There are three access routes to Ruapehu, and each access route leads to one of the three skifields that are found on its slopes.

Geology

Ruapehu is a composite andesitic stratovolcano located at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and forming part of the Tongariro Volcanic Centre. Volcanism at Ruapehu is caused by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Australian Plate at the Hikurangi Trough to the east of the North Island. Ruapehu has erupted from multiple craters over its lifetime, however, only one crater is presently active, a deep crater at the southern end of the summit plateau which is filled with hot, acidic water, dubbed Crater Lake (Te Wai ā-moe). The lake water currently covers separate north and central vents.

Ruapehu sits on a basement of Mesozoic greywacke overlain by a thin layer of sediments of the Wanganui Basin, composed of sands, silts, shell beds, and limestone.

Geology

Mount Taranaki is situated in the sedimentary Taranaki Basin and is part of the Taranaki Volcanic Lineament which has had a 3 cm/year (1.2 in/year) north to south migration over the last 1.75 million years. A Wadati–Benioff zone exists at about 200 km (120 mi) depth and the volcano's magma has the geochemical features of an arc volcano. Under the volcano itself there is high heat flow with only about 10 km (6.2 mi) crustal thickness although this rapidly normalises for continental crust to 35 km (22 mi) east of the volcano and 25 km (16 mi) to the west.

History

The mountain was tapu in Māori culture and at the time of European settlement not climbed by them.

In 1839 the mountain was climbed by James Heberley, a whaler who reached the summit first, and the Swiss-trained doctor and naturalist Ernst Dieffenbach. During his initial ascent, he identified the fast-flowing streams as being well suited to water driven mills. Dieffenbach was employed by the New Zealand Company to advise on the potential of land he explored in the North Island in 1839–40.

In 1865 the mountain was confiscated from Māori by the New Zealand Government under the powers of the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, ostensibly as a means of establishing and maintaining peace amid the Second Taranaki War.