Lake · New Zealand
Lake Te Anau
Lake in Southland Region, New Zealand
- Area
- 333km²
- Max depth
- 270m
- Average depth
- 169m
- Elevation
- 204m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 327km
- Volume
- 56.1km³
Lake Te Anau is a lake in New Zealand. It covers 333 km². On average it is 169 m deep, and 270 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 204 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Te Anau?
The water is warmest in February, around 15 °C at the surface, and coldest in July, around 7 °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 (86 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 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 7 | 198 | 19 | 6.4 | 17 |
| February | 15 | 15 | 15 | 7 | 172 | 17 | 6.0 | 15 |
| March | 14 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 179 | 18 | 5.0 | 15 |
| April | 12 | 13 | 10 | 4 | 177 | 20 | 3.9 | 14 |
| May | 10 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 190 | 23 | 2.6 | 14 |
| June | 8 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 164 | 22 | 2.5 | 12 |
| July | 7 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 167 | 21 | 2.8 | 13 |
| August | 7 | 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 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 4 | 183 | 20 | 6.0 | 17 |
| December | 13 | 14 | 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 7.8 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,091 km² of land.
- About 228 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 5.1 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Te Anau
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 5beaches and swimming spots
West Beach, Honeymoon Beach, Moonlight Beach
- 7campsites
Henry Creek Campsite, Brod Bay Campsite, Te Anau Top 10 Holiday Park, Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park & Motels, Fiordland Great Views Holiday Park and 2 more
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Marakura Yacht Club
- 5marinas and slipways
Marina boat ramp
- 3ferry piers
Kepler Track Water Taxi, Faith in Fiordland, RealNZ Te Anau Glowworm Caves Boat
- 6viewpoints
Te Anau Downs, Five Mile Lookout and 4 more
- 33hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Kingsgate Hotel Te Anau, DoC Hut (No public access), Glade House, Shakespeare House B&B, Matai Lodge and 28 more
- —fishing spots
- 27restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Te Anau2,910 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Queenstown Airport (ZQN), 82 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 (Q1140471) · 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.
