120 years on, rumblings grow over Mt Tarawera access

Only a favoured few will be allowed free access to Mt Tarawera for this year's anniversary.

Mt Tarawera is rapidly turning into the Mt Everest of New Zealand, with access available only to those with a large enough wallet.

Prices for tours are rising and an outcry is developing over access on the approaching anniversary of the mountain's devastating eruption 120 years ago.

Access to Mt Tarawera has been controlled by a private company since 2000, and the public have been banned from walking its scoria slopes since 2002.

The company, Mt Tarawera New Zealand, promised in 2002 that it would allow people free access to the mountain on anniversaries of the June 10, 1886 eruption. In past years, the offer has extended to all members of the New Zealand public, but this year it will cover only Rotorua residents.

Complaints from Rotorua walkers keen for free access for everyone on Saturday week have appeared in the local Daily Post newspaper, but the company rejects criticism that the mountain is becoming too expensive and too exclusive.

Mt Tarawera NZ offers four-wheel-drive tours of the mountain, the cheapest a half-day tour to the edge of the crater that includes a crater walk or climb to the 1111m summit. The cost of the half-day tour began at $110 in 2002, but later increased to $121 and will rise again soon to $133.

Company director Judy Collins yesterday blamed increasing fuel costs for the rise but rejected criticism that the price was too high.

"It is comparable with similar guided tours."

Mrs Collins refused to answer questions by phone after reportedly disputing information that appeared in the Daily Post yesterday.

The newspaper said Mt Tarawera NZ had gone back on its August 2002 promise to give free access to the mountain on each anniversary of the eruption.

But Mrs Collins told the Herald that the policy had since changed. "We cannot maintain the costs of doing so, therefore we have changed our policy on open days," she said in a statement.

She said the mountain had been opened to Rotorua locals on the 2003 eruption anniversary as "a gesture of good will" and then to all New Zealanders on the 2004 and 2005 anniversaries.

On June 10 this year - the 120th anniversary of the eruption that destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces at Lake Rotomahana and killed 153 people - free access would be only for Rotorua locals again.

"[They] must ring and book and supply proof of their residence," Mrs Collins said.

Mt Tarawera is owned by Ngati Rangitihi, who awarded the contract for access to Mrs Collins and her husband, Steve, in September 2000.

Their company immediately increased the price of a walking permit from $2 to $23.

Access rights were changed in August 2002 banning public access to the mountain.

Mrs Collins said the changes were made to bring company operations into line with the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

But the policy has left some disgruntled, including Rotorua resident Monica Quirke.

She told the Daily Post that Mt Tarawera was an integral part of Rotorua history and it was important for people to have free access to the mountain on the eruption's 120th anniversary.

"This year is a very good reason to dust off walking shoes and for Rotorua people to get out there and to get educated about our history."

But Ruawahia 2B, the Ngati Rangitihi trust that awarded the contract to Mt Tarawera NZ, said the company was entitled to dictate the terms of access.

Chairwoman Lyn Hartley said it was "emotive nonsense" to talk about access in the context of the eruption anniversary. "How many people would actually go there yearly to recognise that? I doubt there would be loads," she said.

Mrs Collins said Mt Tarawera was private property and therefore people had to pay.

But although access to Tarawera comes at a price, it is free to climb the country's highest peak, Aoraki Mt Cook, and Tarawera's central North Island cousins Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro.