Lake McKerrow / Whakatipu Waitai lies at the northern end of

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lake ...

, in the southwest of New Zealand's South Island. The lake runs from southeast to northwest, is in length, and covers . Lake McKerrow drains, and is drained by, the Hollyford River. It is one of two lakes (along with Lake Alabaster) found in the lower reaches of the Hollyford River system, and the Hollyford Track, one of New Zealand's most well-known and popular tramping tracks, follows its eastern shore for its full length. The lake is technically a

fiord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, Gr ...

which has been cut off from the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

by sediment. The sea is now three kilometres from the lake's northern end. The

Alpine Fault The Alpine Fault is a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of New Zealand's South Island (c. 480 km) and forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the Indo-Australian Plate. The Southern Alps have been uplifted on the f ...

goes through the lake. Researchers from

GNS Science GNS Science ( mi, Te Pū Ao), officially registered as the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited, is a New Zealand Crown Research Institute. It focuses on geology, geophysics (including seismology and volcanology), and nuclear sc ...

and

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

have studied sediments from the 24 last Alpine Fault earthquakes near the lake and have found the most regular rupture behaviour yet observed. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the lake became one of roughly 90 places in the South Island to be officially given a dual name, adopting the name Lake McKerrow / Whakatipu Waitai.

References

Lakes of Fiordland {{Fiordland-geo-stub