Lake Rotokura, one of the two Karioi Lakes

Lake Rotokura, one of the two Karioi Lakes - January 1999 We headed on to the Karioi lakes for a walk - there are two lakes, the first one you reach was made artificially for fishing etc and is known as Dry Lake the second one which you walk round is natural and called Lake Rotokura. The walk takes about an hour and a half and is well worth a minor detour - there are plenty of picnic tables at the lower lake within 5 minutes walk of the car park. We tried to take the heritage trail back road to Whanganui but the second half is gravel and the signs indicated it had been partially closed by washouts so continued on the main road. The scenery on the SH4 was almost as good even if there was more traffic. We camped on the coast in a commercial site at Castlecliff, 8 kms north of Whanganui. It was possible to get in the water but it was really a surfing beach - very hot and humid. There was thick fog in the morning so it took a while to dry out the tent.