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The Blue and Green Lake just Outside Rotorua

Well, we spent a few days in the beautiful but very smelly town of Rotorua.  The smell, well that’s due to the many, many sulphur springs throughout the town.  Even down to steam coming out of roadside drainpipes! Yep, it’s a smelly tourist town.

But head 10km south-east and you will come across the blue and green lake.  With the Tikitapu lake (commonly known as the blue lake) is the only of the two lakes you can swim in.  You can partake in boating, water skiing, jet skiing and even fishing on this magnificent lake.  This lake is quite shallow, only 27m at its deepest.  Why is this? The lake is a collapsed volcanic crater. The reason for the blue name is due to the pumice and rhyolite bottom, to which the sun reflects up.

Well, now you have learned a bit more about the Tikitapu lake, let’s talk about Rotokakahi (more commonly known as the green lake).  This whole lake is 21m (69ft) below the blue lake. What The larger of the two lakes is just sitting above the bottom of the blue lake!  With the right weather conditions, the Rotokakahi lake a beautiful emerald green.  You can thank you even shallower lake and the sandy bottom for this.

The green lake is privately owned by the Tuhourangi descendants who are a sub-tribe of the wider Te Arawa tribe. This is a very sacred ground to the Te Arawa people and as a result, you cannot swim, boat or fish in it.

If you can find a decent vantage point, you can get an incredible picture of the two lakes.  Showing the amazing colour of the two.

Lee Webber
Lee Webber
Hola, i'm Lee and one half of the founders of Look at our World. You will quite often find me either behind the computer maintaining this stunning website, or sampling some incredible food.

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