Ōkareka means "the lake of sweet food". In early times, Māori grew sweet potatoes or "kumara" around the outside of the lake. It first described in print by Sir George Grey, and poetic mention of it is made by Alfred Domett in his "Ranolf and Amohia." Grey visited it on the course of his travels through the Lakes Country to Taupo in the summer of 1849-50. The journey is described in that rare little book entitled "Journal of an expedition Overland from Auckland to Taranaki", written for the Governor by his secretary G. S. Cooper, with a translation into Maori by his interpreter, Piri-kawau; the book was published in Auckland in 1851. In those days, the route from Ohinemutu to Tarawera was a track which skirted the shore of Okareka and reached the large lake near the mission station called Kariri (Galilee). It was a blistering hot day when Governor Grey and his party took the foot trail from Rotorua to Tarawera, and the narrator says they were "nearly stewed".