Source: Radio New Zealand
The Tongariro blaze on Monday, 8 December 2025. Supplied / Volker and Jan Seipel
Two German tourists who were camping at Whakapapa were stunned how quickly a blaze at Tongariro National Park grew between the time they left their campsite and tried to return.
Volker and Jan Seipel are from Heilbronn in Germany. Jan has been going to school in New Zealand for the last 6 months, while father Volker is visiting before the pair returns home.
On Monday morning, they hiked the Tongariro Crossing just hours before a blaze of over 320 hectares broke out, prompting the Department of Conservation to ask visitors to leave Whakapapa Village and close the Whakapapa Village tracks.
Jan told RNZ there had been no signs of a fire when they’d passed just hours earlier.
Volker and Jan Seipel saw the flames and large clouds of smoke on the drive back to their Whakapapa campsite. Supplied / Volker and Jan Seipel
“When we came, we drove the same road and there was nothing in the morning, nothing, no smoke in the air, no fires, we saw nothing.”
But on their drive back, he said they saw the flames and large clouds of smoke.
Jan said they tried to drive back to their Whakapapa campsite but they were stopped by police and told they couldn’t get through.
The fire closed State Highway 47 between the State Highway 46 and State Highway 48 intersections.
Jan said police advised them to find a campsite in Taupō, over an hour’s drive away.
Fortunately, by chance, the pair hadn’t left any belongings at the campsite.
“Luckily in the morning, we don’t know why, but we packed everything in our car.”
Jan said Lake Taupō was on the way to their next stop, so they were able to adapt their itinerary.
“We didn’t know that it was so nice here and otherwise we would have only passed Lake Taupō, and now we are able to stay [here] and spend our morning in the city here and go for a swim or something like that. So it affected our trip, but in a good way.”
He said they were also really happy they were able to complete the Tongariro crossing on their trip.
“Because the people after us, they are probably not able to do the walk, so we are really lucky and really happy that we were able to do it.”
Fire and Emergency said 50 percent of the fire was contained on Monday night.
Fixed wing aircraft were expected to join the firefighting on Tuesday. along with a fresh crews of firefighters.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
