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The Lake Taupo region in New Zealand's volcanic heartland is rich in Maori tradition. It also has some of the country’s finest untouched, uncrowded and unique landscapes. The lake itself was the result of the most violent volcanic eruption the world has seen in the past 5000 years - the ash affected the sunsets as far away as Europe and China.
Maori legend explains the lake a different way. When Ngatoirangi, the chief tohunga (priest) of the Arawa people, first saw the region he was dismayed to find a barren basin. Realising his people needed resources to live, he plucked a large totara tree and hurled it into the crater to seed a new forest. He aim was true, but the wind flipped the totara and it landed upside down, piercing the ground with its branches. Water gushed up through the holes, filling the basin and creating Lake Taupo.
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Lake Taupo was created by a gigantic volcanic eruption in 181AD. At 616 square kilometres, it is as big as Singapore Island. The lake's attractive pumice sand beaches give it the appearance of an inland ocean.
Over thousands of years, volcanic action has created a landscape of simmering craters, boiling mud pools, fumaroles and steam vents. Maori mythology is richly interwoven with the geothermal features of the region.
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