Mokoia Island
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Mokoia Island is located in Lake Rotorua in New Zealand. It has an area of 1.35 square kilometres. The island is a rhyolite lava dome, rising to 180 metres above the lake surface.
The island is sacred to Māori of the Arawa iwi, and is the location of one of the most famous legends of New Zealand, that of Hinemoa and Tutanekai, which has parallels with the classical Greek tale of Hero and Leander, but with a happier ending.
According to legend, the two lovers were forbidden to marry, and Hinemoa's father Umukaria, a chief from the shores of the lake, ordered that she not be allowed to travel by canoe to Tutanekai's tribal village on the island. Hinemoa decided to swim 3.2 kilometres across the lake to the island, guided by the sound of Tutanekai's flute-playing. For flotation she wrapped hue or gourds around her and swam her way to the island.
The foreshores of the island also have geothermal springs with hot spring water forming the Hinemoa pool known to locals as Waikimihia.
Mokoia Island is home to a breeding population of the endangered Saddleback.
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