Hokitika River - Misplaced Pages

River in West Coast Region, New Zealand

Hokitika River
Hokitika River with Southern Alps in the background

Location
Country	New Zealand
Physical characteristics

Source
• location	Southern Alps

Mouth
• location	Tasman Sea
Length	64 km (40 mi)

The Hokitika River is in the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is about 64 kilometers (40 mi) long, beginning in the Southern Alps, emerging from the narrow Hokitika Gorge after merging with the Whitcombe River, and flowing into the Tasman Sea just south of the town of Hokitika. The river then feeds into the offshore Hokitika Canyon, which merges with the Cook Canyon to form the Cook Channel. The canyons extend to about 650 km (400 mi) and are important spawning areas for hoki, hake and orange roughy.

The Hokitika River, and its eastern tributary, the Kokatahi River, have formed the Kowhitirangi-Kokatahi alluvial plain; a fertile and productive land extensively used for dairy farming.

The entrance to the Hokitika River was once used as a harbour during the West Coast gold rush; however, the sand bar at the river mouth created a treacherous and often fatal obstacle - resulting in many shipwrecks. After the gold-rush subsided, the use of the river as a harbour declined and is now no longer used.

References

"Place name detail: 14251". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
"Vast underwater canyons revealed". NIWA. 18 December 2005. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
B.R. Moore, C. Ó Maolagáin, K. Spong, A. Dutilloy, R.J. Saunders (December 2021). "Age composition of orange roughy from Cook Canyon (ORH 7B) in 2019 and 2020" (PDF). NIWA.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/hokitika-river

42°43′S 170°57′E / 42.717°S 170.950°E / -42.717; 170.950

v t e Landforms of Westland District, New Zealand
Alpine passes	Arthur's Pass Browning Pass / Nōti Raureka Copland Pass Haast Pass
Bays	Bruce Bay Jackson Bay
Canyons, gorges and waterfalls	Fantail Falls Gates of Haast Hokitika Gorge Otira Gorge Roaring Billy Falls Thunder Creek Falls
Glaciers	Agassiz Glacier Douglas Glacier Fox Glacier Franz Josef Glacier Garden of Eden Ice Plateau Olivine Ice Plateau Volta Glacier
Headlands	Abut Head Awarua Point Gillespies Point Knights Point
Islands	Open Bay Islands
Lakes and lagoons	Abel Lake Alpine Lake / Ata Puai Lake Ellery Lake Gault Lake Ianthe Lake Kaniere Lake Mahinapua Lake Mapourika Lake Matheson Lake Moeraki Ōkārito Lagoon Lake Paringa Saltwater Lagoon Lake Wahapo
Mountain ranges	Butler Range Southern Alps
Mountains	Mount Adams Aoraki / Mount Cook Mount Aspiring / Tititea Mount Brewster Mount Dampier Mount Graham Mount Haast Mount Hopkins La Perouse Lendenfeld Peak Mount Rolleston Mount Sefton Silberhorn Mount Tasman Mount Vancouver Mount Whitcombe
River flats	Pleasant Flat
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