Lake Kohangapiripiri is one of the two freshwater Pencarrow lakes in Fitzroy Bay – the other being the slightly larger Lake Kohangatera. It stands to the east of Pencarrow Head, on the eastern side of New Zealand's Wellington Harbour, in East Harbour Regional Park, and is fed by Cameron Stream which rises on private land to its north. The Pencarrow lakes formed in valleys which became blocked to the nearby sea after earthquakes changed the topography.