Rangitata River

Rafting on the Rangitata River

The Rangitata River (English Alford River) is one of the braided rivers that helped to form the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand.

It has its source in the Southern Alps, flows approximately 120 km to the southeast and then leads 30 km northeast of Timaru in the Pacific Ocean.

The river formed the Rangitata Valley in the heart of the Southern Alps. Here on and around Mount Sunday found the filming of Edoras from the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King instead.

Prior to his mouth, the river splits into two branches, which include a wide, elongated delta island. Rangitata Iceland is from State Highway 1 and crosses the main railway line of the South Island, the Main South Line between Ealing and Rangitata.

The Rangitata River is famous for the fishing of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ).

On 23 December 1999 applied for Fish and Game New Zealand a Water Conservation Order for the river. This was set in June 2006.