Lake Karapiro is an artificial lake formed as part of a hydroelectricity scheme on the Waikato River in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 35 kilometres southeast of Hamilton, close to the town of Cambridge.

The lake, regarded as one of New Zealand's best rowing venues, hosted the World Rowing Championships in 1978 and the 1950 British Empire Games. New Zealand has been granted hosting rights for the 2010 World Rowing Championships, to be hosted at Lake Karapiro.

"A Fisa inspection panel had visited Lake Karapiro venue in March 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."

The dam for the Karapiro Power Station forms the lake in the original path of the Waikato River. The Horahora Power Station, part of an earlier hydroelectric power scheme, was flooded with the formation of Lake Karapiro.

Wikipedia articles for Lake Karapiro

• Lake Karapiro
• Karapiro Power Station