Lake Matahina is a reservoir in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand, located immediately south of the settlement of Te Mahoe and 50 km east of Rotorua.
[1] In 1969, five children drowned after driving a car into Lake Matahina at a camp that New Zealand author Barry Crump helped to run.
Upper reaches of the lake are shallow (1 to 4 m), with a sinuous channel constricted by a narrow ignimbrite gorge.
[3] The lake's operating levels are as follows:[6][7] Since its creation the Matahina dam has acted as an effective barrier to the seaward movement of sediment by the Rangitaiki River.
[3] This trapping of sediment has halted or substantially reduced the downstream historical rising river bed and coastal progradation of the Rangitaiki plains.