Power Supply
Power to the complex was initially provided by a coal fired furnace which heated water which was then circulated around the complex to provide heating and 100 kW hydro power station in the Whakapapanui Stream which provided power for lighting and cooking.
By the early 1950s the existing power supplies at the complex were becoming inadequate. In June 1952 the Ministry of Works requested the King Country Electric Power Board to provide a 500 to 600 kW power supply to the Chateau. This resulted in a 8.5 mile long overhead 11 kV transmission line being constructed and commissioned in 1955. This not only supplied power to the chateau but also to the Whakapapa ski field and to several mountain huts on Mount Ruapehu.
In the early 1960s a second line was constructed and commissioned in 1964 by the King Country Electric Power Board to improve the reliability of supply to the Chateau and to other customers in the area.
Read more about this topic: Chateau Tongariro
Famous quotes containing the words power and/or supply:
“It feels good because God has power and if one does as God does enough times, one will become as God is.”
—Michael Mann, U.S. screenwriter. Hannibal Lechtor (Brian Cox)
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)