Buried Village of Te Wairoa

Archaeological site featuring an excavated village buried by an 1886 eruption, with guided tours.

Te Vairoa is an abandoned village located near the shores of Lake Tarawera on the North Island of New Zealand. It was a settlement of Maori and Europeans, founded in 1848 by Rev. Seymour Mills Spencer, where visitors had to go to the pink and white terraces.

The Buried Village is New Zealand's most visited archaeological site where stories of the 1886 Tarawera eruption come to life. Violent and unexpected, Tarawera's eruption was one of New Zealand's greatest natural disasters, destroying our country's very first tourist attraction- The Pink and White Terraces and burying this peaceful village of Te Wairoa. Today at the Buried Village you can experience the stories in our award winning museum, explore the Archaeological Site which once housed the people of Te Wairoa, encounter the unique insights of stories from our tour guides, and take the Waterfall Trail which showcases the stunning Te Wairoa Falls.