Lake · New Zealand
Lake Wakatipu
Lake in Otago Region, New Zealand
- Area
- 291km²
- Max depth
- 420m
- Average depth
- 130m
- Elevation
- 310m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 208km
- Volume
- 37.8km³
Lake Wakatipu is a lake in New Zealand. It covers 291 km². On average it is 130 m deep, and 420 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 310 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Wakatipu?
The water is warmest in January, around 14 °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 February and 3 °C in July. The driest month is August (120 mm of rain), the wettest January (160 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (58 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 | 6 | 160 | 18 | 7.3 | 16 |
| February | 14 | 14 | 15 | 6 | 133 | 16 | 7.6 | 14 |
| March | 14 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 133 | 17 | 6.1 | 14 |
| April | 13 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 133 | 18 | 5.1 | 13 |
| May | 11 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 156 | 21 | 3.5 | 13 |
| June | 10 | 11 | 4 | -1 | 133 | 19 | 3.4 | 12 |
| July | 9 | 9 | 3 | -2 | 132 | 19 | 3.6 | 11 |
| August | 8 | 8 | 5 | -1 | 120 | 20 | 4.4 | 12 |
| September | 9 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 148 | 19 | 4.9 | 15 |
| October | 10 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 159 | 21 | 5.4 | 16 |
| November | 12 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 141 | 18 | 6.5 | 16 |
| December | 14 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 159 | 20 | 7.0 | 15 |
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 7.0 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 3,062 km² of land.
- About 172 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.4 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Wakatipu
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 14beaches and swimming spots
Little Stony Creek Campsite, Rocky beach and 12 more
- 10campsites
The Jardines, Beach Point At Walter Peak Campsite, Kingston - SC only, Queenstown Holiday Park Creeksyde, Twelve Mile Delta Campsite and 5 more
- 1boat hire and water-sport clubs
Hydro Attack
- 14marinas and slipways
Queenstown Marina and 13 more
- 5ferry piers
TSS Earnslaw, Real NZ Booking House
- 38viewpoints
Devil's Staircase Lookout, Seven Mile Point, Halfway Bay lookout, Queenstown Hill Viewpoint, Wakatipu lookout and 33 more
- 114hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Deco Backpackers, Highview Queenstown Apartments, Lomond Lodge Motel & Apartments, Peppers Beacon, Rydges Lakeland Resort and 109 more
- —fishing spots
- 123restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Queenstown10,442 people
- Jack's Point4,300 people
- Frankton3,780 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Queenstown Airport (ZQN), 27 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 | 15.2 | 15.2 | 13.5 | 10.1 | 6.8 | 4.0 | 3.3 | 4.9 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 11.5 | 14.0 |
| 2020 | +0.8 | +0.7 | −0.4 | −1.1 | +1.1 | +1.0 | +0.2 | +1.8 | −0.7 | +1.3 | +2.0 | −0.4 |
| 2021 | −1.4 | +1.3 | ±0.0 | −0.3 | +0.6 | +2.0 | +1.2 | +0.5 | −0.5 | +2.1 | +1.8 | +0.6 |
| 2022 | +2.3 | +1.3 | +3.0 | +1.6 | +1.9 | +0.4 | −0.1 | +1.5 | +1.1 | +1.2 | +1.6 | +1.8 |
| 2023 | +5.0 | +2.9 | −0.3 | +1.4 | +1.9 | +1.8 | +0.8 | −0.7 | +1.3 | +0.5 | +1.3 | +1.1 |
| 2024 | +0.4 | −1.2 | −2.3 | +0.1 | −1.3 | +1.0 | +1.1 | +0.4 | −1.2 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +1.5 |
| 2025 | +2.0 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +1.8 | +1.2 | +0.2 | +2.0 | +0.2 | −1.4 | −1.5 | +1.0 | −1.2 |
+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 (Q127469) · 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.
