Lake Wakatipu is the New Zealand lake famous for its distinctive S-shaped shoreline and the steamboat TSS Earnslaw.
Lake Wakatipu is a long, narrow lake in the South Island, beside the resort city of Queenstown. Its shoreline bends in a pronounced S shape, and the lake is surrounded by mountains formed through glacial and tectonic processes. At about 291 square kilometres, it is New Zealand’s third-largest lake by surface area.
The historic TSS Earnslaw, launched in 1912, still operates as a passenger vessel on the lake. The coal-fired steamship is one of Queenstown’s best-known attractions and is often called the “Lady of the Lake.”
Lake Wakatipu also has a measurable rise and fall in water level, known as a seiche, occurring roughly every 27 minutes. Māori tradition explains the lake’s shape through the body of a giant, while modern geology attributes it to glacial excavation and faulting.