Fishy drains and elusive trout

Lake Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake and is stunningly beautiful. Especially at sunset when the low, streaky clouds turn pink.

The softly rippling water fills a vast volcano crater that's lined with coarse sandy beaches and dotted with pumice stones and pebbles. Green forests and never-ending distant mountains encircle it.

Taupo District Council think it’s all rather lovely, too. They’ve decorated the town’s drains with silver fish to encouage residents to not to tip rubbish down the sink and to remind visitors of the declining population of kokopu – the native giant trout which live in the lake and tributary rivers.

"What goes in the grate ends up in the Lake". It’s all part of the council's kokopu protection plan.

Kokopu can live to a grand age of 20 if water pollution doesn’t see them off first.

You won’t find the famous trout on any menu in town, though. But that’s not because you’re not allowed to eat them – it’s because, unlike salmon, wild trout aren’t allowed to be sold commercially in New Zealand.

So if you want to know what kokopu taste like, you’ll have to catch your own, says the waitress at Fat Fish Café opposite the lake.

Though, she adds, that’s not to say you have to cook and eat it indoors with the curtains drawn. Oh no - you can take your kokopu to any restaurant in town and have them prepare it for you.

It’ll cost $15 per person (around a fiver), or $60 per fish, depending on the restaurant. A bit like fish corkage. How they cook it is up to you – sprinkled with brown sugar and oven-baked whole, or keep it simple with sushi. At least you’ll know it’s fresh.

I didn’t catch a kokopu so I can’t tell you what it tastes like, but if you want to find out, head to Rod & Tackle round the corner from Fat Fish Café. They’ll have you on the first boat out the next morning.