Lake Tagimaucia

Where is Lake Tagimaucia?

Countries on its shores: Fiji.

Largest lake of: Fiji.

Middle of the lake: 16.82° S, 179.93° W

The story behind it

Lake Tagimaucia is a strange lake. Most of it is not covered by open water but by floating islands of sedge plants and peat. In the middle, this floating mat of peat is 2 to 3 metres thick. Only a small part of the lake, about 16 hectares, is open water. Together with the swamp around it, the lake covers about 2.1 km². Its water is different from that of other lakes in Fiji and the South Pacific. The lake is famous for a rare plant, the tagimaucia. This climbing plant grows only in the mountain rainforest of Taveuni and blooms from October to December with crimson and white flowers in long hanging bunches. A legend tells that the flowers came from the tears of a chief's daughter who was not allowed to marry the boy she loved.

Find it on the globe

Lake Tagimaucia is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.