Lake Karapiro is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of the city of Hamilton in New Zealand's North Island. The lake was formed in 1947 by damming the Waikato River to store water for the 96-megawatt Karapiro hydroelectric power station. An International Rowing Federation inspection panel visited Lake Karapiro in March 2006 and said in its report that it was one of the fairest courses in the world they had seen and that the lake was one of the most picturesque in the world.