Rangitaiki is a rural community in the Taupo District and Bay Of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island, located near the source of Rangitaiki River. State Highway 5 runs through it. It is an area of "frost flats" at the southern end of the Kaingaroa Plains, in the North Island Volcanic Plateau. European explorer and botanist John Bidwill visited the plain in 1839 and author Katherine Mansfield described the unique landscape in The Woman at the Store. The area experiences temperature similar to Central Otago in the winter months. It experiences scrub fires in the summer.