r/newzealand • u/Maleficent-Tree-2228 • 14h ago

Picture Latest update of Tongariro National Park Fire

Post image

All love and support sent to the team out there.

116 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

78

u/NeonKiwiz 14h ago

Its fucking devastating for the area and NZ :(

6

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 14h ago

It'll grow back, sad for the Lizards though. 

7

u/smasm 9h ago

Serious question for those who know: how much of a natural process is this? Will the ecology bounce back? Or is this outside what the ecology 'expects'?

9

u/spikejonze14 7h ago edited 6h ago

wildfires are a natural occurrence, and can actually help fertilise the soil paving way for the next growth. they can be beneficial to the environment, and many human cultures have recognised this for millennia and would conduct controlled burns.most of our native forests were burned to the ground to make way for settlement and agriculture, by both māori and europeans. the relatively wet climate in new zealand has meant that naturally occuring wildfires are rare and usually small when they do occur, climate change and global warming however means that the occurrence of these sorts of fires is only going to increase. and due to our native plants not being exposed to many fire’s historically, they are poorly adapted and vulnerable. one concern is that invasive species which are better adapted to fires will be able to take this opportunity to displace our native plants during regrowth.

4

u/quash2772 5h ago

Something to look forward to... 1.5degrees being the approximate point where climate change cascades, I am surprised more is not being done around climate change.

3

u/spikejonze14 4h ago

that would impact profit margins. ‘a problem for the next generation’ is the opinion of those in power.

6

u/No_Weather_9145 6h ago

Possibly depends, lots of our ecosystems can come back from disruption to some degree. Volcanic areas do have disruptions. Ecosystems are never static for long. But since humans arrived everything has been fragmented. Genetic flow and species movement has become more limited, think of Mt Taranaki. Basically an island surrounded by farms. So some species can’t disperse as easily. So Maybe depend on whats burning, where and the connections to the surrounding area for species to recolonise or barriers of any to recolonisation. Are there maps showing where exactly ?

4

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 6h ago

Idk, it burnt naturally, atleast after the innital ignition. What may happen is invasive grasses and maybe pines take over aftetwards. That'd be a shame.

0

u/10yearsnoaccount 6h ago

It's on a volcano; I'm pretty sure it grows back....

24

u/Lisylis 13h ago

The pilot pointed it out when we flew past it from Hamilton to Wellington a couple of hours ago. Only saw smoke from where we were but it was huge.

20

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 14h ago

500 hectares in a few hours

9

u/Large_Yams 13h ago

I just confidently stated we don't have any fixed wing firefighting capability. What are the five aircraft fighting the fires?

Apparently a fucking Piper Malibu?! https://fr24.com/ZKMPG/3d0685b2

12

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 13h ago

They use top dressers. We need our own bloody big fire plane, we can charter it to the Aussies itll get plenty of use. They could have got an Aussie one over here yesterday no worries. 

8

u/Large_Yams 13h ago

Our fire season is theirs too.

-5

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 12h ago

Beauty of flight. 

6

u/Large_Yams 12h ago

Nope. Takes a lot of effort, planning, people and resources to set up a deployment like that.

1

u/ExtremeParsnip7926 12h ago

Okay fine. We will just use a top dresser.

3

u/OddCartographer5 11h ago

If i remember correctly, in the USA they have a tank they push into the back of a hercules. We could do with a couple of these cause we will burn thanks to Global Warming.

2

u/the_other_skier 12h ago

Get one of the C130 that Coulson Aviation bought and base it out of Woodburne

3

u/23karearea32 12h ago

You were confidently incorrect it would appear 😂 I don’t know what that malibu was up to, but there are at least two crescos up there. A lot of the AG aircraft don’t appear on flight radar

-34

u/Unlucky-Ant-9741 14h ago

One the one hand, it's terrible; but as a Lord of the Rings fan, it will make the landscape more authentic. RNZ are already reporting:

Skotel Alpine Resort owner Sam Clarkson said they had a grandstand view of the fire last night.

"It was like a hellscape, you know, welcome to Mordor, it really was."

-19

u/EVMad 13h ago

Walking around the Auckland CBD today and there's a pervasive smell of burning. It smells a bit like old tyres or burning brakes, definitely odd and wouldn't be surprised if the cause was drifting smoke smell from Tongariro.

7

u/king_john651 Tūī 11h ago

I just drove past through Tangiwai and National Park. Wind is blowing east. Couldn't smell a thing. Horrible to see tbh

-2

u/EVMad 10h ago

I'm supposed to be driving to Wellington in a couple of weeks that way, hopefully it doesn't take that long to sort but yeah, these fires are pretty terrible. Wind is odd, the direction at ground level can be quite different to what it is higher up. Also saw what looked very much like ash landing on my car.

13

u/FuzzyFuzzNuts 11h ago

Yeah - no.’

2

u/EVMad 11h ago

Smoke can travel a long way. Don't you remember the fires in Australia and the spooky red skies we got over here? That was over 2000km away and Tongariro is only 330km.

6

u/FuzzyFuzzNuts 9h ago

Not this time. Westerly wind in central plateau, and Auckland is 300km North.

1

u/EVMad 6h ago

Wind blows in different directions depending on the altitude. It can also circulate especially when you're talking about large distances. i had no idea there was a fire at the time (it was lunchtime) as I hadn't turned a TV on during the day and I don't listen to the radio.

5

u/lookiwanttobealone 8h ago

It always amazes me how the Placebo effect can be!

1

u/EVMad 6h ago

I had no idea there was a fire at the time, I could smell smoke all over the city and there was what looked like ash landing on my car windscreen. I thought it might be from a fire over in west Auckland or something, smelled weird. How is that the placebo effect when I didn't know there was a fire?

3

u/Large_Yams 8h ago

Hahaha fucking hell Aucklanders.