Lake · New Zealand
Lake Wānaka
Lake in Otago Region, New Zealand
- Area
- 195km²
- Max depth
- 300m
- Average depth
- 99m
- Elevation
- 282m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 189km
- Volume
- 19.3km³
Lake Wānaka is a lake in New Zealand. It covers 195 km². On average it is 99 m deep, and 300 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 282 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Lake Wānaka?
The water is warmest in February, 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 17 °C on average in February and 3 °C in July. The driest month is February (101 mm of rain), the wettest December (136 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (143 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 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 134 | 15 | 8.9 | 15 |
| February | 14 | 15 | 17 | 6 | 101 | 13 | 8.8 | 13 |
| March | 14 | 15 | 15 | 5 | 104 | 15 | 7.5 | 12 |
| April | 13 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 101 | 15 | 6.1 | 11 |
| May | 11 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 124 | 18 | 4.3 | 11 |
| June | 10 | 10 | 4 | -2 | 115 | 16 | 4.0 | 10 |
| July | 9 | 9 | 3 | -3 | 105 | 16 | 4.4 | 10 |
| August | 8 | 8 | 5 | -2 | 101 | 17 | 5.4 | 10 |
| September | 9 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 121 | 17 | 6.4 | 14 |
| October | 9 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 123 | 18 | 7.2 | 14 |
| November | 11 | 12 | 13 | 3 | 117 | 16 | 8.5 | 14 |
| December | 12 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 136 | 17 | 8.7 | 14 |
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 4.0 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 2,587 km² of land.
- About 153 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Wānaka
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 8beaches and swimming spots
- 7campsites
Boundary Creek Campsite, Outlet Camp Wānaka, Mt Aspiring Holiday Park, Wanaka Holiday Park, Wānaka TOP 10 Holiday Park and 2 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 11marinas and slipways
Wharf Creek Boat Ramp, Glendhu Bay recreation reserve boat ramp and 9 more
- 7ferry piers
Wānaka, Ruby Island, Glendhu Bay, Outlet Camp, Stevenson's Island and 2 more
- 10viewpoints
Lake Hawea Lookout, Lake Wanaka Lookout, Lake Hawea (#17), Lake Wanaka, Clutha River Seat and 5 more
- 32hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Fern Lodge, Wanaka Bakpaka Hostel, Alpine Motel, Mountain View Backpackers, The Brownston and 27 more
- —fishing spots
- 45restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Wanaka13,200 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Wanaka Airport (WKA), 36 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 | 16.9 | 16.9 | 14.7 | 10.9 | 7.1 | 3.9 | 3.1 | 5.1 | 7.8 | 10.1 | 12.9 | 15.4 |
| 2020 | +1.4 | +1.6 | −0.2 | −0.6 | +1.1 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +1.8 | −0.3 | +1.4 | +1.6 | ±0.0 |
| 2021 | −0.7 | +1.5 | +0.2 | +0.4 | +1.0 | +1.8 | +1.0 | +0.2 | −0.4 | +1.6 | +1.5 | +0.2 |
| 2022 | +3.1 | +0.2 | +2.2 | +2.2 | +2.0 | +0.2 | −0.6 | +1.0 | +0.5 | +0.6 | +0.7 | +0.6 |
| 2023 | +3.2 | +1.2 | −0.7 | +0.8 | +1.8 | +1.3 | +0.9 | −0.5 | +0.8 | +0.9 | +1.3 | +1.7 |
| 2024 | +1.0 | −0.4 | −1.3 | +0.4 | −1.2 | +1.2 | +0.7 | +0.5 | −0.7 | −0.2 | +1.0 | +1.2 |
| 2025 | +1.7 | +3.5 | +2.2 | +1.5 | +1.2 | −0.4 | +1.4 | +0.1 | −1.1 | −1.4 | +1.1 | −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 (Q1192728) · 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.
