Buried Village
Rotorua in the North Island of New Zealand features natural wonders such as calderas, crater lakes, trout, native bush walks, geothermal mud pools and geysers, and volcanoes.
The Buried Village in Rotorua, lies in the shadow of one such volcano, Mt Tarawera that last erupted 10 June 1886. This eruption was only one of many in the previous 1,800 years, and is recorded as New Zealand’s most devastating natural disaster.
Te Wairoa (the Buried Village) a nearby village that was a staging post for international visitors viewing the famous Pink and White Terraces was buried beneath two square kilometres of hot lava, rock, ash, and boiling mud. Over 5000 square miles of countryside was affected between the hours of 1.30 and 5.30am, resulting in the loss of 153 lives.
Today, you can view the remains of this Maori and European settler village through the excavated sites and displays at Te Wairoa - the Buried Village, (the only one in New Zealand following a volcanic eruption.)
Self-guided tours are available also through the Museum at Te Wairoa, a journey through the chronological events and superstitious sightings leading up to the eruption and the effect it had on lives and the area's tourism livelihood. The museum was awarded a Tourism New Zealand ‘Innovator Award’ for Cultural and Heritage Tourism - for the methods and ideas used to interpret this story of the first tourism entrepreneurs within Rotorua, New Zealand.
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