Things to do at Lake Taupō

Lake Taupō fills a 616 km² crater left by a super-eruption, and most of what visitors come for sits on or beside the water. The Māori rock carvings at Mine Bay, cut into a cliff face in the late 1970s, are reachable only by boat or kayak, with return trips typically running two to three hours.

On the shoreline, hot springs seep straight into the lake in a few spots, warm enough to sit in without a wetsuit. Trout fishing is the other draw: the lake and its rivers hold rainbow and brown trout year-round, guided half-day trips are the usual way in, and any trout you catch cannot legally be sold or served in a restaurant anywhere in New Zealand.

Taupō town is about an hour's drive south of Rotorua on the state highway.