Tarawera Ultra-Trail by UTMB, live.

Eight lakes and a boat

Five races across the lake country east of Rotorua, all of them ending on the same patch of grass downtown.

Tarawera Ultra-Trail by UTMB is run on 13 and 14 February 2027 around Rotorua, in the UTMB World Series. The TMiler leaves Te Puia, Rotorua’s cultural and thermal hub, at 04:00 on the Saturday for 163 km and 3,800 m of climbing. The T102 starts at 07:00 in Kawerau, at Firmin Field, the T50 at 07:00 from Te Puia, and the T21 at 10:00 from the Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) Reserve. The T14 runs on the Sunday at 07:30 from Te Puia. Every course finishes on the Village Green in downtown Rotorua.

The organiser’s own map is the reason to come: lakes, native bush, conifer forest and thermal ground, with steam beside the trail at Sulphur Point. The TMiler passes eight lakes, runs beneath Mt Tarawera, Ruawahia and Wahanga, goes by the Buried Village and the Tarawera Falls, and crosses Lake Rotomahana by boat. The Tarawera Forest is private land, closed to runners on every other day of the year. All the longer courses come back through Tikitapu and the redwoods of Whakarewarewa before town.

With four start points and one finish, most supporters wait on the Village Green while their runner is somewhere between lakes. On Livebib the runner shares a link to their own broadcast, and family open it in a browser with no app and no account: position on the course line, distance covered and a finish estimate that updates through the day. Where the phone loses signal in the forest or by a lake, the position is carried forward along the course and marked as estimated, never shown as measured.