Lake · New Zealand
Lake Manapouri
Lake in Southland Region, New Zealand
- Area
- 132km²
- Max depth
- 444m
- Average depth
- 149m
- Elevation
- 181m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 161km
- Volume
- 19.7km³
Lake Manapouri is a lake in New Zealand. It covers 132 km². On average it is 149 m deep, and 444 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 181 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Manapouri?
The water is warmest in January, around 16 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 8 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 15 °C on average in January and 5 °C in July. The driest month is August (150 mm of rain), the wettest October (204 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (85 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 16 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 198 | 19 | 6.4 | 17 |
| February | 16 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 172 | 17 | 6.0 | 15 |
| March | 15 | 15 | 13 | 6 | 179 | 18 | 5.0 | 15 |
| April | 13 | 14 | 10 | 4 | 177 | 20 | 3.9 | 14 |
| May | 11 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 190 | 23 | 2.6 | 14 |
| June | 9 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 164 | 22 | 2.5 | 12 |
| July | 8 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 167 | 21 | 2.8 | 13 |
| August | 8 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 150 | 22 | 3.8 | 13 |
| September | 8 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 178 | 21 | 4.4 | 16 |
| October | 10 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 204 | 23 | 5.3 | 17 |
| November | 13 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 183 | 20 | 6.0 | 17 |
| December | 15 | 16 | 14 | 6 | 197 | 20 | 6.5 | 16 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 24 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 4,503 km² of land.
- About 317 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Manapouri
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 6beaches and swimming spots
Cosy Nook, Fairy Beach, Ruby Beach, Frazers Beach and 2 more
- 5campsites
South Arm Campsite (Lake Manapouri), Manapouri Motel and Holiday Park, Manapouri Motor Home Caravanpark, Possum Lodge
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 3marinas and slipways
- 1ferry piers
Adventure Manapouri - Manapouri Track
- 1viewpoints
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Possum Lodge, Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn, Moturau Hut
- —fishing spots
- 3restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Queenstown Airport (ZQN), 107 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ZQN airport (Queenstown)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 15.0 | 14.9 | 13.4 | 10.5 | 7.7 | 5.3 | 4.7 | 6.1 | 7.9 | 9.4 | 11.6 | 14.0 |
| 2020 | +0.7 | +0.5 | −0.5 | −0.8 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +0.3 | +1.6 | −0.8 | +1.3 | +1.7 | −0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.1 | +1.2 | +0.1 | −0.2 | +0.5 | +1.8 | +1.1 | +0.1 | −0.5 | +2.3 | +1.6 | +0.6 |
| 2022 | +1.8 | +1.2 | +3.0 | +1.3 | +1.9 | +0.4 | −0.3 | +1.1 | +0.8 | +1.2 | +2.1 | +1.8 |
| 2023 | +4.4 | +3.1 | +0.2 | +1.6 | +2.0 | +1.9 | +1.0 | −0.6 | +1.0 | +0.3 | +1.1 | +0.8 |
| 2024 | +0.5 | −1.2 | −2.1 | +0.2 | −1.6 | +1.2 | +0.9 | +0.1 | −1.0 | +0.4 | +0.7 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +1.9 | +1.6 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +1.1 | +0.2 | +1.8 | ±0.0 | −1.2 | −1.1 | +1.2 | −1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q1192384) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
