The Tama Lakes sit inside explosion craters blown out of the saddle between Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngāuruhoe. Getting to them is a genuine half-day undertaking: seventeen kilometres return, five to six hours of walking, extending the popular Taranaki Falls Walk from a track head about 100 metres below Whakapapa Visitor Centre across undulating tussock country and alpine herbfield. The Department of Conservation grades the main track as intermediate, and the side trip to the Upper Lake viewpoint as advanced.