On the 10th of June 1886, the eruption from Mt Tarawera - near Rotorua - came with little warning, causing major destruction and killing 150 people. It is the largest eruption in New Zealand's populated times.

With little more than a few earthquakes around 12:30am, Tarawera started erupting about an hour later. By 2:20am craters along the whole length of the mountain had begun erupting throwing ash 10km into the air. At 3:20am Lake Rotomahana - further along the Tarawera rift - begun erupting, and eruptions continued along the 7km long rift until about 6:00am. Events from Lake Rotomahana were particularly explosive as the magma reacted with the lake water, causing most of the casualties from the eruption.

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