Rakaia River
River system of the Rakaia River
Seen Rakaia River from Mount Hutt from
The bridge over the Rakaia Gorge
Rakaia River, Aerial View
The Rakaia River is a river in the Canterbury Plains in the South Island of New Zealand. He is one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. The river has an average discharge of 203 m³ / s and a seven-day average minimum annual runoff of 87 m³ / s
The river rises the Southern Alps and then runs 150 km mainly in eastern and south-eastern direction. It flows 50 km south of Christchurch in the Pacific.
Over a large part of its course the river is a braided river which flows on a broad gravel bed. Close to Mount Hutt, he is briefly, concentrated in a canyon, the Rakaia Gorge.
In the 1870s there were plans to extend the White Cliffs Branch branch line through the Rakaia Gorge. The Royal Commission on Railway Transport spoke in favor of the plan from 1880, but this was never implemented. In 1882 a road bridge was opened over the gorge.
About the lower reaches of the river there are in the town of Rakaia two bridges that are the longest road and rail bridges in New Zealand .. They are about 1750 m long. The town of Rakaia is 20 km from the river mouth away, about halfway between Christchurch and Ashburton.
The river is for fishing for king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) are known.
The basin of the Rakaia hosts 73 % of the total population of that in New Zealand " Wrybill " or " Ngutuparore " plover Anarhynchus frontalis. Other bird species are the Black-fronted Tern ( Chlidonias albostriatus ) and the double banded Plover (Charadrius bicinctus ).
The Central Plains Water Trust wants to take up to 40 m³ / s of water from the river.