The 10-metre likeness of Ngātoro-i-rangi — navigator, tohunga, and the man credited with summoning Aotearoa's geothermal fires — was carved into Mine Bay's pumice cliffs in the late 1970s by master carver Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell and a team working from scaffolding suspended above the water. The scale was deliberate: traditional Māori rock art rarely exceeds a hand's span, but Whakataka-Brightwell designed these carvings to be read from a distance, visible only to those approaching by water. The clifface, 14 metres above the summer waterline, is composed of rhyolitic pumice deposited during the Oruanui eruption 26,500 years ago — soft enough to chisel, stable enough to endure four decades of wind and wave wash. Mine Bay sits on the western shore of Lake Taupo, a 616-square-kilometre caldera lake formed by one of the most violent eruptions in the Holocene record. The carvings occupy a site that holds deep significance for Ngāti Tūwharetoa, the iwi whose rohe encompasses the lake and surrounding high country. Ngātoro-i-rangi is a founding ancestor, the priest-navigator who guided the Te Arawa waka to Aotearoa and later climbed Tongariro to call fire from Hawaiki when his party faced freezing conditions. The clifface depicts not only his face but also smaller figures representing Māori cosmology — taniwha, ancestral guardians, and the South Wind that shaped the voyage. Today the carvings are accessible exclusively by watercraft. No road reaches Mine Bay; the site remains uncommercialised, protected by its isolation and the lake's size. Lake Taupo sailing tour options range from traditional yachts and luxury catamarans to electric sailboats and sea kayaks, each allowing visitors to approach the carvings at the pace the medium permits. Morning departures between 8:30 and 11:00 benefit from calmer surface conditions — the lake, fed by snowmelt and rain, can generate metre-high wind waves by early afternoon during spring and summer. The volcanic cliffs absorb and reflect morning light, rendering the carved grooves in sharper relief than midday or evening passages. The site is not gated, ticketed, or staffed. Entry to Mine Bay itself is free; costs attach only to the vessel or guided experience required to reach it. Operators departing from Taupo township cover the 12-kilometre crossing in 40 to 90 minutes depending on wind and hull type, with some itineraries extending to include geothermal bays, trout-viewing zones, or circumnavigation legs. The carvings themselves remain as Whakataka-Brightwell left them — unlit, unsigned, and encountered in silence save for the sound of water against stone.