November 9, 2025 • 4 mins
A significant improvement in Tongariro National Park's massive blaze, which grew by leaps and bound over the weekend.
Fire and Emergency says rain today's helped dampen the fire - and the focus for the next couple of days is fighting it on the ground.
NZ Herald journalist Mike Scott says the wind has also calmed down, and it's likely the region is through the worst of the fire.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Firefighter's Face another day battling to bring the Tongadedo National
Park fire under control. The large fire on the Central
Plants I broke out on Saturday, triggering evacuations of trampers
and residents, including fuck Apupper Village. Authorities have just finished
a media briefing and New Zealand Heralds Mike Scott was there.
He's on the ground and he joins us on the phone. Now, Mike,
(00:38):
very good afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Who is at the stand up and what do we
learned about the situation? Mike?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
There was a multi agency stand up, so we had
doc we had been police, Local Ewie and Mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Whe's Curtis And what came out of that media briefing? Mike,
I understand we've we've found out roughly how many hec
tears have been destroyed by this fire.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, twenty eight hundred has been destroyed so far, which
sounds pretty bad, but actually there was a little bit
of good news out of this briefing. The fire is
way more contained. Weather has been helping I've been quite
wet here, and so the things are looking a bit better.
There's also not so much wind, not like in the
weekend when it was hot and dry in windy.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So have we seen the worst of the spire, do
you think, Mike?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, yeah, we have. The residents of the Fluckerpapa village
are actually going to be allowed to back this afternoon,
so it can we turn to their homes, which, yeah,
that's obviously a good sign. The fire itself, the main
part of the fire has actually been kind of contained,
and so it's split into two flanks, and in those
flanks aren't quite as devastating as what the fire was
(01:52):
like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
What does it smell like at the moment, Mikey, Can
you still smell the smoke there? Are you still seeing
some flames in the distance.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
No, you're not. When I arrived at six o'clock this morning, yeah,
it was smoky and you could definitely smell it right now. No,
it seems like quite a nice, crisp alpine day. It's
very cloudy here, so we can't see any flames or
any smoke at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So you say twenty eight hundred heck, tears have been
affected by the fire.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
What sort of specific damages occurred in that twenty eight
hundred hec tears.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
It's mainly just the destruction of the bush. It's sort
of a subalpine sort of bush, very slow growing, quite
devastating actually, Gamien from Dock he was saying that that's
the worst impact. There's probably been some impact on the track,
you know, the tong we were crossing in the Northern
Surge as well, but not as much as what they thought.
They think that that can be sort of rectified really quickly.
(02:51):
It's the bush that's been damaged that's the real harm.
The good newsers is that the fire, when it split
into these two flanks, it was able to be diverted
away from a publer village but also towards crucially not
hit beach forest or the kiweeds that resided there.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Was there there any information Mike about how this may
have started the fire?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
No, they hadn't let us. There is only speculation at
the moment, and there's an investigation going on and sends
North last we're going to give us any more information
on that at the moment.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, And the message from Western curtin the mirror of Rupai,
who obviously was we are back open for business. We
want people to go back, and I suppose that is
an important thing for some of those businesses down there, right, Mike.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh, definitely. This is an area that's been hit consistently
for the last five years. You know, you've had ski
field closures, you've had the shadow and closure. You know,
they're obviously subbed through COVID, and they even had the
sawmills cloth down rather he So it's like it's just
been kind of punched every year. So this is just
the latest one. So you really do feel for them.
(03:56):
But you know, Where's as a positive guy. He's going
to be looking to try and make things now come
back to life as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it sounds like it some good news all around, Mike,
that they've got it under control and people can start
going back. But it sounds like there will be a
bit of clean up to go before this is all over.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Oh, look, those firefighters will be there for days actually,
because you know, while the fire, the main flame might
be gone, there's going to be still clean up and
making sure that there's no flames underneath the ground. Really. Yeah,
so you's still a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Mike, really appreciate your time this afternoon and coming on.
Thank you and all the beast down there.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No worries, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That is the New Zealand heralds Mike Scott on the
latest on that wildfire and Tongadedo. So thankfully it appears
that they have started to contain that fire and residents
have started coming back. So that is good news because
it was pretty full.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
For more from News talks'd be listen live on air
or online and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Firefighter's Face another day battling to bring the Tongadedo National
Park fire under control. The large fire on the Central
Plants I broke out on Saturday, triggering evacuations of trampers
and residents, including fuck Apupper Village. Authorities have just finished
a media briefing and New Zealand Heralds Mike Scott was there.
He's on the ground and he joins us on the phone. Now, Mike,
(00:38):
very good afternoon to you.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Good afternoon.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Who is at the stand up and what do we
learned about the situation? Mike?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
There was a multi agency stand up, so we had
doc we had been police, Local Ewie and Mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Whe's Curtis And what came out of that media briefing? Mike,
I understand we've we've found out roughly how many hec
tears have been destroyed by this fire.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, twenty eight hundred has been destroyed so far, which
sounds pretty bad, but actually there was a little bit
of good news out of this briefing. The fire is
way more contained. Weather has been helping I've been quite
wet here, and so the things are looking a bit better.
There's also not so much wind, not like in the
weekend when it was hot and dry in windy.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So have we seen the worst of the spire, do
you think, Mike?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, yeah, we have. The residents of the Fluckerpapa village
are actually going to be allowed to back this afternoon,
so it can we turn to their homes, which, yeah,
that's obviously a good sign. The fire itself, the main
part of the fire has actually been kind of contained,
and so it's split into two flanks, and in those
flanks aren't quite as devastating as what the fire was
(01:52):
like yesterday.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
What does it smell like at the moment, Mikey, Can
you still smell the smoke there? Are you still seeing
some flames in the distance.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
No, you're not. When I arrived at six o'clock this morning, yeah,
it was smoky and you could definitely smell it right now. No,
it seems like quite a nice, crisp alpine day. It's
very cloudy here, so we can't see any flames or
any smoke at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So you say twenty eight hundred heck, tears have been
affected by the fire.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
What sort of specific damages occurred in that twenty eight
hundred hec tears.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
It's mainly just the destruction of the bush. It's sort
of a subalpine sort of bush, very slow growing, quite
devastating actually, Gamien from Dock he was saying that that's
the worst impact. There's probably been some impact on the track,
you know, the tong we were crossing in the Northern
Surge as well, but not as much as what they thought.
They think that that can be sort of rectified really quickly.
(02:51):
It's the bush that's been damaged that's the real harm.
The good newsers is that the fire, when it split
into these two flanks, it was able to be diverted
away from a publer village but also towards crucially not
hit beach forest or the kiweeds that resided there.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Was there there any information Mike about how this may
have started the fire?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
No, they hadn't let us. There is only speculation at
the moment, and there's an investigation going on and sends
North last we're going to give us any more information
on that at the moment.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, And the message from Western curtin the mirror of Rupai,
who obviously was we are back open for business. We
want people to go back, and I suppose that is
an important thing for some of those businesses down there, right, Mike.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Oh, definitely. This is an area that's been hit consistently
for the last five years. You know, you've had ski
field closures, you've had the shadow and closure. You know,
they're obviously subbed through COVID, and they even had the
sawmills cloth down rather he So it's like it's just
been kind of punched every year. So this is just
the latest one. So you really do feel for them.
(03:56):
But you know, Where's as a positive guy. He's going
to be looking to try and make things now come
back to life as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it sounds like it some good news all around, Mike,
that they've got it under control and people can start
going back. But it sounds like there will be a
bit of clean up to go before this is all over.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Oh, look, those firefighters will be there for days actually,
because you know, while the fire, the main flame might
be gone, there's going to be still clean up and
making sure that there's no flames underneath the ground. Really. Yeah,
so you's still a long way to go.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Mike, really appreciate your time this afternoon and coming on.
Thank you and all the beast down there.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
No worries, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That is the New Zealand heralds Mike Scott on the
latest on that wildfire and Tongadedo. So thankfully it appears
that they have started to contain that fire and residents
have started coming back. So that is good news because
it was pretty full.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
For more from News talks'd be listen live on air
or online and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
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