Lake Hakanoa

Lake Hakanoa is located within the eastern side of the Huntly township, in the Waikato Region of New Zealand. Lake Hakanoa is a riverine lake with links to the Waikato River, which lies 300 m to the west. A smaller lake lies within wetland near the southeastern edge of Hakanoa.

There is a 3.6 km walking track around the perimeter of the lake.

The lake is 52 ha in size, has a maximum depth of 2.5 m, with a catchment area of 613 ha. The domain, lake, edges and wetland cover 93 ha. The lake level is controlled by a weir on the Hakanoa Stream, which drains to north into the Waikato River. The lake was lowered over 2 ft in 1923, though drainage work had also been done in 1911.

When Māori first came in the 14th century, tuna (eels) were plentiful in all the local lakes. After the invasion of the Waikato, Lake Hakanoa was usually referred to as a swamp and coal mine workings and spoil tips surrounded the lake, with a shaft close by, started after a new mine opened on the east bank after 1910. In 1932 unemployment relief schemes formed the tips into Huntly School grounds (in 1960 the municipal landfill south of the school was added), a rifle range and soccer club. In 1911 Lake Hakanoa was declared a game sanctuary and in 1926 it became a wildlife reserve. However, to improve fisheries, attempts were made to remove shags from the lake in 1927, which didn't become a protected refuge until 1958. Huntly Athletic Park Domain was created in 1930 as a recreation reserve and swimming pools added from 1943. Huntly Yacht Club has used the lake since 1954. The walkway around the lake was started in the 1960s and completed in 2001. Weeds affected boating in the 1950s and 1960s, so paraquat was used to kill it, but other water life was also affected. However, in 1987 bittern and spotless crake were noted around the lake. Huntly Lions built the bandstand in 2001. Management was transferred from the Department of Conservation to Waikato District Council in 2004. Features around the lake include Genesis Energy Gardens, Raahui Pookeka Gardens and the Green Cathedral.

Fish
Trout were put into the lake in 1907 and perch at about the same time. A 2016 fish survey found mosquito fish the most common, but koi carp formed the greatest mass of a sample catch, at 74.4 kg, followed by shortfin eels, 22.1 kg.