September 25, 2018
Mountain off limits for final sleep
Mountain off limits for final sleep
The iwi of Ruapehu: Uenuku, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangi, have placed a rāhui in the Te Wai a Moe area to acknowledge Saturday’s fatal accident.
All climbers, trampers and skiers are asked not to go above the boundaries of the ski areas at Whakapapa, Tūroa and Tūkino or above a line 2300 metres above sea level.
The rāhui will be lifted at sunrise on Wednesday.
Ngāti Rangi spokesperson Che Wilson says the 30-year-old Wellington man slipped on ice at the rim during a hike and fell in to the crater lake.
The rāhui is a way to express sympathy to the whānau of the deceased and provides time for tapu to dissipate following the death.
Te Wai a Moe literally means sleeping waters, as when it is full the volcano is resting.
"It's also a place where we would inter the bones of our tūpuna. The last time we did that with full ceremony was in the 1920s, and then again when we discovered some bones up on the plateau in 2002," Mr Wilson says.
Being a crate lake, Te Wai a Moe can be cold, warm or hot, and it can also contain dangerous compounds.
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