Walk 68, 24th July 2021
There are some beautiful lakes in the Rotorua lakes district, and Lake Okareka is my favourite. This lake is in the same area as Lake Tarawera and the Blue and Green Lakes. I’ve canoed on it and ridden on the hills above. If you like bird watching there are lots of noisy water birds to see.
I like the Black Swans the most because they weren’t believed to exist. New Zealand’s Black swan was hunted to extinction by the Maori but black swans were brought over from Australia in the 1860s and there’s a population of approximately 50,000 today.
Walk: Rotorua 25
Links
Patupaiarehe : The very rugged badlands of the central North Island became the sanctuary for early Patu-paiarehe tribes fleeing from the Eastern coastline of New Zealand over in the Hawkes Bay District or from the western coastline around Taranaki. The Ngati-Hotu of Hawkes Bay, first fled to the inland lakes. In the Rotorua District this included lakes Rotorua, Okataina, Okareka, Tikitapu, Tarawera, Rotomarama, Rerewhakaaitu, Rotoehu, and Rotama. The Patu-paiarehe tribes seemingly subsisted well in the district and their underground dwellings or other structures can be found throughout the area to this day. On the Western side of Lake Rotorua they occupied the high ground of Ngongataha. Source: Whakahoro
Lake Okareka : “Ōkareka means “the lake of sweet food”. In early times, Māori grew sweet potatoes or kumara around the outside of the lake.
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