Waimakariri River

Position of the Waimakariri on the South Island of New Zealand

Waimakariri River to Christchurch in the background

The Waimakariri River ( in Canterbury "The Waimak ") is the largest river in the Canterbury region on the South Island of New Zealand.

It flows for a distance of 151 km from the Southern Alps to the Pacific.

The river rises on the southern side of the Southern Alps, 8 km south-west of Arthur 's Pass. Over a large part of the upper reaches of the river is a so-called braided river, a system of numerous changing, interconnected rivers with wide gravel beds. When access to the Canterbury Plains, it passes a mountain belt, where it is in a narrow canyon, the Waimakariri Gorge, forced, before resuming its earlier form on the plane again. It flows north of Christchurch at Kaiapoi in the Pacific.

In the language of Māori Waimakariri has several meanings, including " river of cold, rushing water."

Geological evidence shows that the estuary was very mobile and intermittently flowed through the present Christchurch, for a time even in the Lake Ellesmere south of Banks Peninsula.

The Central Plains Water Trust proposes to remove a total of 40 m³ / s of water for the Central Plains Water Water supply project in two places of the river.