Smoke from the fire at Tongariro National Park turned Hawke’s Bay skies orange on Sunday as the sunset. Photo / George Jose

'Incredibly red, incredibly vivid': Tongariro fire lights up skies hundreds of kilometres away

Author: Jack Riddell,
Publish Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2025, 2:42pm

A massive fire burning through alpine bush in the Tongariro National Park has made for some eerie skies around Hawke’s Bay.

Hawke’s Bay Fire and Emergency deployed crews from Heretaunga Volunteer Fire Brigade, Napier Station and Putorino Volunteer Fire Brigade to help battle the blaze that started shortly after 3pm on Saturday near the State Highway 47 and SH48 junction.

Damian Coutts from the Department of Conservation said on Monday about 2800 hectares of Tongariro National Park had been lost because of the fire.

Smoke and ash from the fire turned Hawke’s Bay skies a vivid orange on Sunday, particularly as the sun set.

The vivid orange sunset caused by the Tongariro National Park fire as seen from Havelock North. Photo / Renee Altham

MetService meteorologist Alwyn Bakker said this was because the particles from fire were scattering light.

“The reason why sunsets in general are redder is because the light from the sun is essentially scattering differently than when it’s directly overhead.

“So when it’s directly overhead, we get the blue light that is being scattered by the atmosphere. At sunset, sunrise, the angle has changed, so we’re getting the redder light.

“With all of the ash and smoke from all of the fires, things are getting scattered more.

“So we get those really incredibly red, incredibly vivid sunsets when that kind of stuff happens.”

Bakker said if you imagine a beam of light moving through the air and when it encounters things it can bounce off or interact with them, changing the light pathway.

A closeup of Sunday's sunset in Havelock North, caused by the smoke and ash from the Tongariro National Park fire. Photo / Akhill T John

“If you think of a rainbow, that’s where all of the light splits out and different colours of light split out to different points on the rainbow.

“[But] the red light splits out further and bends more than the other colours of light.

“So when the sun’s at a really low angle, we’re seeing that light that’s been split out the most and when you’ve got a lot of particles in the atmosphere, like the ash from the fires or the smoke, that is splitting out the red light more.”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.