Mountain beech forest. Photo NC.

Between the Turoa Road and Mangaehuehu Hut, and especially beyond the Waitonga Falls, the track passes through magnificent forest where mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) is dominant. This is the common forest type throughout the whole western quarter of the park, and all the way from Whakapapa Village the Round the Mountain Track either passes through it, or stays out of it close to the tree line.
But here the forest has many tall and large mature trees, and thick blankets of mosses and lichens covering branches and trunks further add to its character.
In Tongariro National Park deer concentrate in beech forest and intensely graze the understory, especially large-leaved coprosmas, broadleaf, mountain five-finger and mountain cabbage tree. The result is deterioration of the forest's character, with an open understory replacing the normally luxuriant growth of the forest floor. In the longer term, deer therefore prevent the forest from regenerating.