Lake Poukawa is a small shallow hardwater lake in the Hawke 's Bay Region , North Island , New Zealand . It is located about 20 km south-west of Hastings , New Zealand , close to the settlement of Te Hauke . It is the largest lake lying within a peatland in the active tectonic Poukawa depression ( or Poukawa Basin ) , between the Raukawa Range and Kaokaoroa Range of central Hawke 's Bay . Its maximal depth is less than one metre and its diameter is ca. 1.5 km . It was deeper in the past ( about 2.5 metre ) but it became artificially drained after the 1931 Hawke 's Bay earthquake . Lake Poukawa became a well-known paleontological site in 1956 when paleontologist Russell Price began with his excavations in the lacustrine deposits . Lake Poukawa had a species rich Pleistocene/Holocene waterfowl fauna . More than 13,400 anatid bones were unearthed at this site since 1956 . Extinct birds found at Lake Poukawa include Biziura delautouri , Oxyura vantetsi , Mergus australis , Chenonetta finschi , Pachyornis geranoides , Ixobrychus novaezelandiae , Gallinula hodgenorum , Fulica prisca , Malacorhynchus scarletti , and Cnemiornis gracilis
1931 Hawke 's Bay earthquake
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
Lake Poukawa