Divers clean up Blue Lake

Divers have removed a large enclosed trailer-load of rubbish found in Rotorua's Tikitapu as part of a clean up of the lake bed.

Tikitapu, or the Blue Lake, is one of Rotorua's most popular and it has been given a good spring clean with divers finding everything from truck tyres to cell phones on the lake bed.

About a dozen members of the Tauranga Sub Aqua Dive Club, led by Rotorua's Ross Powell, took to Tikitapu on Saturday and Sunday collecting rubbish from the lake bed.

Mr Powell, an honorary member of the club thanks to his position as lakes' maritime officer for the regional council, said the team filled a large enclosed trailer with rubbish found in the lake.

"The bottom is covered with a thick layer of sediment so a lot of stuff would just disappear," he said.

"You'd expect to find a lot of phones and sunglasses but they were not around."

Among other items found were a 44-gallon drum, two large truck tyres - one almost new - all sorts of balls, piles of rope, hundreds of bottles and lots more.

"It's incredible what we found. The most interesting thing was a steel loading ramp for something like a bobcat. It must have been thrown in there because it was down by the ski lane; very strange.

"We found a fairly new Blackberry phone with the sim card still working ... and had to pull some of the larger stuff up with a crane."

Mr Powell said the club usually did this sort of thing on the coast but chose Rotorua's Tikitapu because it was a popular and beautiful spot.

"We do it all for free in our spare time, but we do get some support.

"The ski club cooked us lunch [on Sunday] and on Saturday Subway gave us a load of platters."

Mr Powell said the group liked to give something back to the community. "And we have a few laughs as well."

The clean up was supported by the Rotorua District and Bay of Plenty Regional councils, the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, Subway, Blue Lake Holiday Park, Lake Okareka Ratepayers Association and the Blue Lake Water Ski Club.