Fire and Emergency is reporting gains overnight Saturday from firefighting efforts in Waiouru.
Incident controller Craig Cottrill said 77 percent of the fire was now contained.
“The remaining areas will take a bit of hard work for crews to dig out and extinguish remaining hot spots.”
Ground conditions had improved enough to get vehicles in to more remote areas, he said.
Fire and Emergency plans to gradually withdraw staff over coming days and return control to the Defence Force on Monday.