page_title: Southern Lakes (New Zealand)
section_title: List of lakes
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Lakes (New Zealand) / List of lakes
caption_attribution_description: English: Lake Wakatipu seen from the top of the Queenstown gondola.
context_page_description: The Southern Lakes is an unofficial name given to an area of the southern South Island of New Zealand. Despite being an unofficial designation, the term Southern Lakes is sometimes used by organisations such as the New Zealand Meteorological Service and Automobile Association. Though exact definitions vary, the area encompasses parts of western Southland and Central Otago, and is occasionally extended to include the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury, a total of roughly 28,000 to 35,000 square kilometres.
  The region is generally lightly populated, with much of its southwestern part being uninhabited national park. Much of the scenery was heavily glaciated during the last ice age, and as such contains many broad U-shaped valleys, several of which are filled with large lakes. These include the country's deepest lake, Lake Hauroko, and three of the country's four largest lakes. If the Mackenzie Basin is included, seven of the country's ten largest lakes form part of the Southern Lakes.
context_section_description: Lakes with a surface area of more than 20 square kilometres (7.7 sq mi). Those listed as being in Canterbury are often excluded from definitions of the Southern Lakes.
  Other notable lakes include the Mavora Lakes of Southland, Lake Hayes in Otago, and the artificial Lake Ruataniwha, part of the Canterbury-Otago boundary.
caption: Panorama of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu
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