Crater · Tongariro & Mangatepōpō

Red Crater

The highest point of the Crossing: a steaming red crater with a dramatic lava dike.

Iron-stained red and black walls drop into a crater that last erupted in 1926 and still steams. A hollowed lava dike, where magma once drained away, sticks out of the crater wall. The ridge gives the full panorama: Ngāuruhoe, Ruapehu, Oturere, the Emerald Lakes below and Blue Lake across Central Crater.

❄ Snow and ice on the steep approach ridge from May to October; crampons and ice axe needed in winter.