Lake Rerewhakaaitu shortened to Lake Rere, is a small, shallow lake in northern New Zealand, located 30 kilometres to the east of Rotorua. It is immediately south of the active volcano Mount Tarawera, and the geography was substantially altered by the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera.
Geography
At a mean autumn height of above sea level the lake is highest and southernmost of the Rotorua Te Arawa lakes. Occupying a shallow basin, it is mostly surrounded by farming pasture; although over the past few decades, exotic and indigenous forest cover has begun to appear.
Water Flow
The lake is fed by the Awaroa and Mangakino Streams. having formed after the Waiohau eruption of 14,009 ± 155 years ago. The area of the lake and its catchment has multiple rhyolitic pyroclastics from Mount Tarawera eruptions.
The 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera covered the lake area in tephra to a depth between . Some of the ash deposits in the catchment, particularly the even thicker ones to the north of the lake, would have been washed into the lake within a year or two as described at the time.
Ecology
The lake is home to 46 different bird species with nine of these classified as threatened. This includes the largest breeding population of banded dotterel in the Rotorua Ecological District.
The lake is classified as mesotrophic, with moderate productivity and water quality. Its trophic level index was 3.4 in 2014.
Education
Lake Rerewhakaaitu School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .