Stories

Tarawera obliterates Pink and White Terraces

Before June 10, 1886 it was generally believed that the Mt Tarawera volcano was extinct. The beautiful Pink and White Terraces, the silica steps rising out of Lake Rotomahana, were one of New Zealand’s first tourist attractions. There were a number of Maori settlements in the area and Europeans had lived in the area since the 1840s.

There are reports that 10 days before the eruption, a party of tourists and their Maori guides saw a waka on Lake Tarawera. While the tourists were unperturbed by the sight, the Maori knew that the waka was not one of theirs. They believed it to be a phantom and an omen of death.

Less than a fortnight later, just after midnight on June 10, a series of sharp earthquakes began to shake the land around Mt. Tarawera.

The eruption was over in six hours and threw out just 1.5 cubic kilometres of material, but though small it was very violent and the consequences were devastating.

Two unidentified men standing outside the fowl house or in which they had spent the night of the Tarawera eruption
A group of men stand amongst the ruins of McRae's Hotel which was destroyed during the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera (Alexander Turnbull Library)

The Pink and White Terraces were utterly destroyed and villages decimated. More than 100 people lost their lives.

The rift along the top of the mountain was 17 kilometres long. There was a metre or more of ash and mud covering the land around Tarawera. Lake Rotomahana and the surrounding valley were blown out leaving a crater which later filled to become the much larger lake of today.

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