IWI / HAPU AFFILIATIONS

The name of Tuhoto Ariki is synonymous with the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.¹ Heavy showers of dust and pumice covered the landscape as far Whakatane and Opotiki and the explosive cannon sounds of the mountain erupting were said to have been heard as far away as Auckland. Tarawera had three craters that sent volleys of rocks, stones, fireballs and larva mud flying into the sky. The famed Pink and White Terraces of Rotomahana were destroyed; the vegetation was stripped and the village of Te Wairoa was completely devastated.

Tuhoto died soon after the 1886 Tarawera eruption which buried his kāinga. He survived for four days with no food and water and was rescued by Alfred Warbrick. The official death toll was put at around 150, but it is more likely between 108 and 120 people were killed. According to a Partridge family history, while he was recovering in Queen Elizabeth hospital in Rotorua, Henry Partridge visited Tuhoto and gave him a cigar.²

NM