Rotorua has a surfeit of lakes to explore including the scenic route past magnificent redwood forests to the crystal-clear Blue and Green Lakes. Just past the Buried Village, we catch our first glimpse of Lake Tarawera and Mt Tarawera, the latter’s brooding gaze a forbidding reminder of the havoc it caused during its eruption in 1886. But today the mountain is a sleeping giant that oversees the picnicking families on the lake shores and anglers practising their casting in eager anticipation of the season.