Crater · Tongariro & Mangatepōpō

South Crater

A flat, silent moonscape between Ngāuruhoe and Tongariro.

After the Devil’s Staircase the Crossing enters South Crater, a kilometre-wide basin of sand and scoria. Ngāuruhoe’s cone rises 600 m above its southern rim; the Red Crater ridge is ahead. In winter it is a white plain crossed by a line of poles.

❄ Snow-covered from roughly June to October; the poles can be buried after storms.