Rotokawau Virginia Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the city of

Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whangan ...

in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is situated in the suburb of

St Johns Hill St Johns Hill is a suburb of Whanganui, in the Whanganui District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. Demographics St Johns Hill, comprising the statistical areas of St Johns Hill East and St Johns Hill West, covers ...

in the north of the city. The lake was called Virginia Lake for many years but in 2016 the

Whanganui District Council Whanganui District is one of the districts of New Zealand. It includes the city of Whanganui and surrounding areas. Geography Formerly spelled "Wanganui", the Whanganui District Council resulted from the amalgamation of Wanganui and Waitotara cou ...

voted to rename it Rotokawau Virginia Lake. Rotokawau is the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name for the lake of the black shag. There are a number of attractions at the lake and surrounding reserve: the Higginbottom Fountain, winter garden in an Art Deco conservatory and a statue of Tainui. Tainui was the daughter of a local chief, and the statue was sculpted by local sculptor Joan Morrell. In 2022 it was moved within the reserve to a site closer to the lake. A ''waka maumahara'' (memorial canoe) built of

Corten steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...

and decorated by artist Cecelia Kumeroa was unveiled in 2020. It replaced an older canoe which was erected in memory of Pura McGregor, a Whanganui community leader and first

woman recipient of an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

. A statue of children's story character

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

is also located close to the lake. Sculpted by Cecil Thomas and unveiled in 1967, it is a variant of the sculptor's 1965 sculpture in

Dunedin Botanic Gardens The Dunedin Botanic Garden (known in local slang as the "Botans", "Botang", Botanic or Botanical Gardens) is located at the northern end of central Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. The garden is close to the University of Otago and one ...

References

Further reading