Mackenzie River east into the Churchill River. The eastern portion of the Mackenzie basin is dominated by vast reaches of lake-studded boreal forest and includes many of the largest lakes in North America. By both volume and surface area, Great Bear Lake is the biggest in the watershed and third largest on the continent, with a surface area of and a volume of . Great Slave Lake is slightly smaller, with an area of and containing of water, although it is significantly deeper than Great Bear. The third major lake, Athabasca, is less than a third that size with an area of
Waitaki River Waitaki River The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the Ohau River and the Tekapo River, now in the head of the artificial Lake Benmore, these rivers being fed by three large glacial lakes, Pukaki, Tekapo, and Ohau. The Waitaki flows through Lake Benmore, Lake Aviemore and Lake Waitaki, these lakes being contained by hydroelectric dams, Benmore Dam, Aviemore Dam and Waitaki Dam. The