After a fine 6-week cruise from Whangaroa Harbour down to Tauranga, Silmarillion needed a few days on a lake to flush the salt from her pores, before heading for the Cook Strait ferry and home. Following Barry Kerr’s advice, we decided to visit Tarawera on the way south, and are very pleased that we did! The weather as we left Tauranga was glorious, with an intense anti-cyclone moving onto the country, and the forecast was for a 10 knot southerly – perfect for a relaxed end to our trip, we thought. 

After restocking with stores and fuel at Rotorua, we trundled past the “madding crowd” at Blue Lake. A brief look at the ramp at Tarawera Landing (Kotokutuku Bay) persuaded us that it is unsuitable for a Noelex 25, with limited area for rigging or parking, so we pressed on to Boatshed Bay. Of the four ramps on Tarawera (see map), Boatshed Bay seems the best bet: it is excellent, with a double ramp and jetty, lots of area for rigging and parking, public conveniences, and reasonable shelter. However, when we arrived, the anticipated 10 knot breeze was more like 20 knots, gusting straight into the bay and presenting a major challenge for launching! After a lot of muttering, we lifted the mast, loaded the stores on board, and settled down with a brew. By about 6 p.m. the gusts seemed to be abating, and launching turned out to be a lot easier than we’d feared.

Once out on the lake we found a 1-2 m sea and a 20 knot southerly headwind, so rather than head for Hot Water Beach as we intended, we bashed our way straight across to the eastern shore and found a very nice beach, sheltered under a point, at which to tie back for an overnight anchorage. As we explored the lake over the following few days, we realized that there are numerous beaches around the shore – particularly on the southern side – which provide great spots for picnics, swimming, and overnight stops under almost any conditions and wind directions. The map shows several anchorages that we used or might have used if we had been staying longer. Several other spots, particularly where there are beaches, also look to offer good anchorages – always bearing in mind the expected overnight wind direction and strength!

The wind rose for the nearby Rotorua Airport shows the predominant winds during the summer months to be from the west, north, and northeast. The year-round pattern is much the same. Wind speed rarely exceeds 8 m/s (16 knots), so the conditions that we encountered on our first day on the lake were quite unusual! Of course, on a lake like Tarawera, wind directions experienced on the water are very much modified by the surrounding hills. For instance, the southerly we experienced was being funneled strongly through the narrows leading to the southern arm of the lake, making for challenging sailing.

Our next morning was precisely as forecast – a beautiful clear sky and a light southerly breeze, so we sailed straight off our anchor and across to the lake outlet, at the eastern end of the lake. The handy little DoC guidebook Walks in the Rotorua Lakes area, which we bought at the Rotorua visitor centre, describes a nice walk to Tarawera Falls, which we planned to do. There is a jetty on the north side of the outlet, but instead we tied back to the beautiful beach just to the south. (There is an excellent DoC campground at the outlet, as well as a launching ramp, but shallow water at the ramp and the long gravel entrance road from Kawerau make it unattractive for a Noelex).

The walk to Tarawera Falls is beautiful – not too strenuous and very scenic, with several swimming holes and a couple of magnificent waterfalls. We met a wallaby on the way back, which didn’t seem very bothered by visitors – it’s not surprising that there’s not much undergrowth in the forest around here.

Back at the lake, the water was so warm (in comparison with the sea along the Northland and Coromandel coast that we’d experienced recently) that we spent the rest of the day swimming at the beach, and giving Silmarillion’s centreplate a good scrub down. Another still, peaceful night, not having to worry about tides, ground swell, and wind shifts.

Tarawera was now at the centre of the anticyclone, so there was insufficient breeze even to ruffle the lake surface. We motored across to Humphries Bay, on the north side, for a walk over a low saddle to Lake Okataina, passing a scattering of power boats trolling for trout. The northwest corner of Humphries Bay provides a nice sheltered anchorage, although the beach is cobbles rather than sand, and it looks to be a good spot for fishing. The walk to Okataina is pleasant, too.

And then, across to Rapatu Bay, 9 km away at the southern extremity of the lake, for another very pleasant walk over a low saddle, this time to Lake Rotomahana. There’s a jetty at Rapatu Bay, at which to moor. Despite the good number of power boats out on the lake and distributed around the shoreline, there was only one other boat at the jetty. But the walk to Rotomahana is well worth doing, and the lake is very picturesque – and uncrowded.

And so, to Tarawera’s “honeypot”, Hot Water Beach. This has got to be one of the best hot springs in the country, with scalding hot water pouring into the lake from springs just at the lake edge. We anchored offshore, in about 20 m of water, and swam to the beach, noticing the water getting steadily hotter as we did so. Actually, the water gets so hot, particularly at the surface, as to be potentially dangerous – keep close control of youngsters. There is a DoC campsite at the beach which attracts quite a few visitors and overnighters, but even so it doesn’t feel too crowded.

Another nearby point of interest is at the west end of the southern arm of the lake, where the Wairua Stream flows into the lake and builds a nice sandy delta. The inflowing water is cool, and it should be a good spot for fishing. It seems to be the only perennial stream flowing into the lake. To north and south of the delta there are a couple of small bays. They provide beautiful sheltered anchorages, and our third night on the lake was spent swinging at anchor in the northern one, in company with three power boats. The shoreline here is mainly covered by regenerating forest, with the canopy of tree ferns providing a very picturesque backdrop to the scene.

On our final day on Tarawera, we sailed, with a dieing southerly breeze, across to the northwestern part of the lake for a look-see. This area has many homes along the shore, so it isn’t of much interest to visiting yachts, although there are quite a few resident yachts moored here. A big attraction of Tarawera is that about 85% of the lake shore is covered by forest or shrubland included in the Tarawera Scenic Reserve, and because of this, landing and going ashore doesn’t present access problems with landowners.

Well, we could have stayed for a few more days, but our ferry booking called. Maybe next year we’ll come back, and visit a few more of those beautiful North Island lakes!

Paul Mosley
Silmarillion