TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18625, 5 August 1922, Page 8

TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK

A REMARKABLE WINTER. ABSENCE OF SNOW. . . l (From Odb Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, 'August 4. Most unusual weather conditions have been experienced at the Tongariro National Park this winter, the season having been so mild and so dry that at present there is actually less snow on the mountains and less water in the streams than there was last December. There have been only one or two light falls of snow at Whakapapa Hut during the last six weeks, and this week the lower slopes of Ruapehu were entirely bare, while the northern face of Ngauruhoo and the Tama Saddle, usually deeply covered at this time of the year, were also bare. One authority who is at present visiting the park states that never before in the course of his 20 years’ experience has he seen the mountains so bare of snow at this season of the year. For some 10 days past the weather has been wonderfully fine, |With hard frost at night and warm sunshine and cloudless skies all day. A party of visitors who have been spending a holiday at the park describe the conditions as thoseof summer rather than of winter. The absence of rain and snow, and the long-continued hard frosts,, have resulted in tne ice being'packed hard on the rock faces and glaciers, and consequently climbing is difficult and dangerous. A party of three mountaineers set out for the .summit of Ruapehu this week, but after four hours’ hard, going was compelled to abandon the trip, having to use the ice axes to cut steps almost every foot of the way in places which they climbed with ease across the snow last Christmas.