Lake Rotoiti at Okawa Bay

Lake Rotoiti's level recorder is located in Okawa Bay along with a rainfall monitoring station. Water levels of the lake are controlled by the Okere Gates that regulate water flow into the Kaituna River. The river acts as a diversion route for water that originally flowed through the Ohau Channel.

The private jetty is open to the public and is used primarily for water and jet ski launching. This jetty makes accessing the hot pools along the southern shores of Lake Rotoiti easy. The lake formed when large volcanos in the Taupo Volcanic Zone erupted and collapsed over hundreds of thousands of years ago. The area remains one of the most active geothermal regions in the world. The full Maori name of the lake is Te Rotoiti-kite-a-Ihenga, which translates to "the small lake discovered by Ihenga.

Get directions to this beach

COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Meets water quality standards
Current Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on February 21st, 2021. Swim Guide NZ updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on February 21st, 2021 at 1:54 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Bay of Plenty monitors water quality at popular swimming spots throughout the Bay of Plenty.

Water quality data on Swim Guide is sourced from the LAWA Can I Swim Here? website. www.lawa.org.nz/swim

At this site, water is regularly tested for levels of E. coli and potentially toxic algae during the summer months. E. coli is a faecal indicator bacteria is used to indicate the level of harmful pathogens in the water, and the presence of toxic algae blooms can be harmful to people and animals.

See information on recreational water quality monitoring in New Zealand in the LAWA factsheet: https://www.lawa.org.nz/learn/factsheets/coastal-and-freshwater-recreation-monitoring/

Beach sites are shown as a GREEN swim icon if the latest E. coli test result was in the range of 0 - 550 E. coli / 100 mL or the potentially toxic cyanobacteria biovolume or total cyanobacterial material is less than 0.5 mm3/L.

Beach sites are shown as a RED swim icon if the latest E. coli test result exceeded 550 E. coli / 100 mL or the total microcystins exceed 12 ug/L or potentially toxic biovolume exceeds 1.8mm3/L or the potentially toxic cyanobacteria biovolume or total cyanobacterial material is equal to or more than 0.5 mm3/L.

A RED swim icon status is also assigned if this site frequently exceeds the standards or there is a temporary water quality issue outside the routine testing programme (e.g. sewage overflow).

See information on the standards for recreational water quality monitoring in New Zealand in the 'What do the swim icons mean?' LAWA factsheet.

LAWA recommends for all sites, to avoid swimming for 2 - 3 days after significant rain, even for sites that normally have good water quality.

A good rule of thumb is to check that you can see your toes in knee deep water.

Toxic algae blooms can form rapidly, and even small amounts can be harmful - stay safe and get to know what to look for here so you can avoid it: https://www.lawa.org.nz/learn/factsheets/potentially-toxic-algae/

See www.lawa.org.nz/swim for up to date information on current warnings and alerts, weather conditions, real-time water temperature and water levels, what facilities are available, the monitoring history at this site and helpful factsheets.

Water Quality Graph