1846 Taupo landslide

Te Rapa sat below the volcanic springs of Mt Kakaramea. The missionary Richard Taylor recorded how an ‘unusually rainy season occasioned a large landslip’ on Mt Kakaramea in 1846. The slip dammed a stream which, three days later, ‘burst its barriers, and, with irresistible force, swept rocks, trees and earth with it into the lake’. Te Rapa was buried with only a few individuals managing to flee in time. Another village, named Waihi, which was established near the site of Te Rapa, met a similar fate on the morning of 20 March 1910. Villagers heard something resembling cannon-fire and rushed outside to take a look. A cloud of dust appeared as another enormous landslide came crashing down the valley. This time all but one escaped.