Tarawera Trail Route Recce

This can also be run as an out and back, or in reverse, beginning with the boat ride in to Hot Water beach.

The start is on the shore of the Blue Lake just opposite the Top 10 Holiday Park, which is actually a pretty good place to stay if you want to do a few runs in the area. From here, head to your right and follow the shore around to the edge of the forest where the track starts. Take the lower (left) path and head anti-clockwise around the lake. Bypass the first trail on your left that drops down toward the lake at about 2km, then take the next left just a bit further on where three forestry roads join. 

Keep following the road to the left, anti-clockwise around the Blue Lake until you reach the Tarawera Road at the south-east corner of the lake. This is all a pretty pleasant easy run so far, mostly in exotic forest, with a bit of native and some good views of both lakes. Turn right onto Tarawera Road for a kilometre or so downhill to the start of the Tarawera Trail. Be careful on this stretch, as it is a main highway and cars go pretty fast. There are some pretty good views down the Green Lake on your right.
The Tarawera Trail head is pretty easy to spot, as there is a large car park and a carved entrance to the trail (If you get to Buried Village, you've gone too far!).

The trail starts off in a scrubby area and makes a short climb into bush. You will skirt the edge of the Buried Village grounds. On the race day you go through a gate into the village itself and do a bit of a run through to the Aid station and your Devonshire Tea, then climb past the waterfall back onto the trail, but for this run you will circle around the back of the village and head down a steep gorge toward Lake Tarawera. Near here you will see a signposted side track on the left, which leads to the Landing, which is an option if you choose to park at the Landing and start or finish the run from there instead of Tikitapu.

From here you basically just stay on the track as it follows the southern edge of Lake Tarawera through beautiful native bush past a succession of bays to Hot Water beach. The track is sort of pumicy soil and pretty free draining so it's seldom very boggy.

The terrain undulates a bit and there are three pretty grunty hills to negotiate, the last and tallest of which is just past Wairua Bay, about 4km from the finish. The good news is that once you get over it, it's all downhill in a steep plummet to the lake where there is just a couple hundred metres or so around the sand to Hot Water Beach itself.

At the far end of the beach a boiling spring comes down into the lake and as long as you're careful you can paddle around and find a pleasantly warm spot, but try not to dig your toes in too much on the bottom because as you sink into the sand you can suddenly find a hot spot lurking a few millimetres beneath. There's a bit of grass to sit on while you wait for your boat ride back to civilisation.