List of New Zealand Lakes

New Zealand has a large number of lakes . If you do not take into account lakes on nearby islands, in New Zealand there are 775 lakes, the length of which exceeds 0.5 km. Moreover, they occupy 1.3% of the land. ^[1] The largest of these is Lake Taupo , located on Severny Island : its area is 623 km². Nevertheless, most of the largest lakes in New Zealand are located on South Island (all of them are of glacial origin). The country's deepest lake is also located on Yuzhny Island: it is Lake Hauroko , whose depth reaches 462 m. ^[1]

From the point of view of geology, most of the lakes of New Zealand, whose area exceeds 0.5 km², are of glacial origin (all of them are located on Yuzhny Island). Their share reaches 38%. ^[1] All of them were formed as a result of the disappearance of glaciers during the last ice age . 4% of the lakes are of volcanic origin. Again, all of them are already located on the other largest island of New Zealand - North. In general, from a geological point of view, the country's lakes are quite young: most of them formed less than 10 thousand years ago. ^[2] Not all lakes in the country are of natural origin. About 60 lakes in the territory of New Zealand are artificial reservoirs, formed either as a result of the construction of hydroelectric power stations , or to provide water to large settlements. The largest man-made lake is Lake Benmore on the Wahitaki River: its area is 74 km². ^[one]