Taupo, Turangi & Tongariro Heritage
A brief look back in time...
Taupō and its legendary lake, are unique New Zealand features whose birth started on the volcanic slopes, where western dead lands were swept by dust storms. This is a place steeped in rich spiritual and cultural history in the coming of the Maori, and the struggle and endeavour of early European settlement.
Lake Taupō began its dreamy watery beginnings with a volcanic eruption in 186AD. This enormous eruption blew a 660 square km hole in the Earth sending ash into the atmosphere so high and so far that the Chinese and Romans recorded these fiery red skies.
Tuwharetoa Maori arrived in the 13th Century - descendents from the Arawa, one of the great canoes from the great migration. European settlement in 1830 began marked the arrival of Christianity, geologists, traders, and settlers. In 1877 Taupō was surveyed into allotments and by the 1890s Taupō was flourishing, with sheep farming and an expanding business town. With better road access and transport, Taupō was starting to attract travellers and the town was forming.
During the 1900s the growth and economic development expanded with farming, forestry, geothermal potential, tourism and lifestyle making Taupo the exceptional and distinctive business, events and holiday destination it is today.
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