Rangitaiki River

Rangitaiki River between Edgecumbe and Thornton

The Rangitaiki River is 155 km the longest river in the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand.

Geography

The river rises 130 kilometers from the coast of the Bay of Plenty, near to the Lake Pouarua at an altitude of 800 m in the northern foothills of the Ahimanawa Range. With a rightward shift of the flow in the upper and middle reaches pursues a north-easterly direction, runs west along the Te - Urewera National Park, only to culminate in a northerly direction behind Thornton in the Pacific Ocean. At its upper reaches it passes the place Rangitaiki, considered the namesake of the river. Other towns like Murupara, Te Teko and Edgecumbe lie further downstream along the way.

The Rangitaiki River dehydrated with an average discharge of 70 m³ / sec. an area of ​​3005 km ² and feeds in the central region of two reservoirs, Lake Aniwhenua and Lake Matahina.

Use

In the wake of the further colonization of the plane between the Tarawera River and the Whakatane River, the wetlands in the lower reaches of the river on both sides of the river were drained since the early 20th century, more and more straightened and diked. The Rangitaiki Plain was thus made usable for agriculture, but at the price constant danger of flooding. This risk has increased by more extreme weather conditions with considerable volumes of rain on the one hand and by the reduction of the area of Edgecumbe from seaward by up to 2 meters by the Edgecumbe earthquake of 2 March 1987.

The river is one of the source to the mouth by experts as unparalleled fishing grounds. Brown trout and rainbow trout with weights around 2 kg, often up to 5 kg, can be fished. In the mouth region of sea trout are caught preferred.

In the upper course of the river the rafting sport is very popular and the place Murupara a starting point, while further downstream the river more for canoe and kayak tours suitable.

The built for power generation in the 1960s Matahina dam was designed for a 72 MW power. In the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987, which had the 6.5 on the Richter scale, the dam was, however, damaged, lost water and had to be repaired in 1988.

The second dam further up, the Aniwhenua dam provides a power generation capacity of 25 MW and was handed over to its in October 1980.

Swell

• Natalie Anne Bleackley, Biology of common bully ( Gobiomorphus cotidianus ) - Populations in the Tarawera and Rangitaiki Rivers: Reproductive isolation by inland distance or effluent Discharges, The University of Waikato, 2008?.
• Rangitaiki River - An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 edited by AH McLintock. ( Online edition )
• New Zealand - The Essential Touring Atlas, Gregory 's Publishing Company, First Edition 2006 ISBN 0-7319-1716-2.