The Dart River / Te Awa Whakatipu flows into the northern end, the lake then runs south for 30 kilometres before turning abruptly to the east.

The Kingston Flyer follows part of the former river bed now blocked by glacial moraine.

[2] Queenstown is on the northern shore of the lake close to the eastern end of its middle section.

It has a seiche period of 26.7 minutes which, in Queenstown Bay, causes the water level to rise and fall some 200 millimetres (8 in).

It is a common venue for adventure tourism, with skifields, paragliding, bungy jumping and tramping tracks within easy reach.

[4] Wakatipu could mean "growing bay" if the original was Whakatipu and the h elided as a result of the Southern Māori dialect.

Lake Wakatipu has experienced periodic flooding[9] affecting the lakeside communities of Kingston, Glenorchy and Queenstown.

Lake Wakatipu doubled as the Scottish Loch Ness in the 2007 film The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

The 81 km solo wetsuit swim from Kingston on the lake's southern point to Glenorchy took 18.5 hours.