Karapiro (Māori: Karāpiro) is a settlement and rural area in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island.

On the orders of the Ngāti Hauā chief Te Waharoa, his dead warriors were cremated, this taking place on rocks beside the Waikato River, the location then becoming known as Karāpiro, from the Māori language words karā, meaning "basaltic stone", and piro, meaning "foul smelling".

[4] A man opened fire inside the Karapiro Cafe and Grits in April 2019.

[5] The suspect was later put under mental health care;[6] the victim survived with serious injuries.

[10] Lake Karapiro is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River, formed in 1947 by damming the Waikato River to store water for the 96-megawatt Karapiro hydroelectric power station.

Lake Karapiro alternates with the South Island's Lake Ruataniwha in hosting the New Zealand national rowing championships and the New Zealand secondary school rowing championships (Maadi Cup).In March 2006, an International Rowing Federation inspection panel described Karapiro as one of the fairest and most picturesque courses in the world.

The station is a base load generator due to its need to maintain water flows into the Waikato River system beyond the lake.

The ten-megawatt Horahora Power Station at Horahora, 13 km upstream of Karapiro Dam, part of an earlier hydroelectric power scheme, was flooded with the formation of Lake Karapiro.