Waitangitāhuna River - Misplaced Pages

Joint river in New Zealand

Waitangitāhuna River
Part of the southern section of the river viewed from the State Highway 6 bridge

Location
Country	New Zealand
Region	West Coast
District	Westland District
Physical characteristics

Source
• location	McFetrick Peak
• elevation	2,188 metres (7,178 ft)

Mouth
• location	Tasman Sea
• coordinates	43°08′17″S 170°14′21″E / 43.1381°S 170.2393°E / -43.1381; 170.2393
Length	37 km (23 mi)

The Waitangitāhuna River (formerly called the Waitangitaona River) are two rivers in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. It was a single river until an avulsion in March 1967, when it became two rivers. Since then, the southern portion of the river has flowed into Lake Wahapo, while the northern section discharges into the Tasman Sea north of Ōkārito Lagoon.

Name

In 2018, the official name of the rivers, previously known as the Waitangitaona River was gazetted as the Waitangitāhuna River, correcting a misspelling that had been in use since the middle of the 19th century. Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio, the governance entity for local Māori had initially proposed two different names for the two rivers but, following public consultation, changed its proposal so that each section of the river would have the same name. The proposal was accepted by the New Zealand Geographic Board and the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage.

The name Waitangitāhuna translates from Māori as weeping waters. The earlier, incorrect, spelling of the name was untranslatable.

Geography

The Waitangitāhuna river rises in the snowfields of the Tatare Range, on the slopes of McFetrick Peak, and flows in a generally northern direction. A flood in March 1967 caused an avulsion of the river, with the river's flow being redirected across an ancient alluvial fan into Lake Wahapo, 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from its previous course. Previously the river had continued flowing north, between the Waitangiroto and Whataroa Rivers, with all three rivers emptying into the same lagoon with a single channel to the Tasman Sea.

Following the 1967 avulsion, some of the flow from the alluvial fan was into Graham Creek and then back into the original bed of the river and to the Tasman Sea. Stopbanks constructed on the alluvial fan in the 1980s, to prevent the southern section of the river returning to its previous course, mean that the northern river is no longer fed by the southern river.

The southern section of the river flows for about 21 kilometres (13 mi) from its headwaters to Lake Wahapo, and includes a 57-metre-high (187 ft) waterfall. From Lake Wahapo the water runs through Trustpower's 3.1 MW Wahapo hydroelectric power station, first commissioned in 1960, to the Ōkārito River. A bridge on SH 6, 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) southwest of Whataroa is the only bridge over the river.

The northern section of the river, flows generally north then westwards for approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi) from its source at the confluence of Graham Creek and Matainui Creek (which flows through Whataroa) to its mouth at the Tasman Sea, just north of Ōkārito Lagoon. The shorter Waitangiroto River follows a course roughly parallel to that the lower Waitangitāhuna, one kilometre to the south. By August 1967, the Whataroa River had formed its own channel to the sea, and now reaches the Tasman 2 km (1.2 mi) to the north of mouth of the Waitangitāhuna River.

References

Sage, Eugenie (20 December 2018). "Change to correct te reo spelling for river". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
"Place name detail: Waitangitāhuna River". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
^ "Report on proposals for: Waitangitāhuna River [altered from Waitangitaona River (recorded name)], Waitakitāhuna-ki-te-Toka [altered from Waitangitaona River (recorded name)]" (PDF). New Zealand Geographic Board. 16 October 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
"Waitangitaona River, West Coast". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
Rennison, G. (1971). "Results of the Waitangitaona River course change, March 1967" (PDF). Tane. 17: 173–179. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
Benn, John (1990). "West Coast river flood history 1846–1989" (PDF). West Coast Regional Council. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
"Wahapo power scheme". Trustpower. 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
"Whataroa power project". The Press. Vol. 98, no. 28823. 18 February 1959. p. 7. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
"Waitangitaona River, West Coast". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
"Waitangitaona River, West Coast". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 28 January 2019.

v t e Westland Tai Poutini National Park, New Zealand
Mountains	Mount Dampier Douglas Peak Mount Elie de Beaumont Mount Haast Mount Hicks La Perouse Lendenfeld Peak The Minarets Mount Sefton Silberhorn Mount Tasman Mount Teichelmann Torres Peak Mount Vancouver
Mountain passes	Copland Pass
Glaciers	Agassiz Glacier Douglas Glacier Fox Glacier Franz Josef Glacier
Lakes	Alpine Lake / Ata Puai Lake Mapourika Lake Matheson Lake Wahapo
Rivers	Balfour River Callery River Clearwater River Cook River / Weheka Copland River Douglas River Fox River Hinatua River Karangarua River Ōmoeroa River Ōkārito River Ruera River Strauchon River Totarakaitorea River Troyte River Waiho River Waikūkūpa River Waitangitāhuna River
Lagoons	Ōkārito Lagoon
Walking tracks	Copland Track Roberts Point Track
Huts	Chancellor Hut
Reserves and World Heritage Sites	Te Wahipounamu Waiau Glacier Coast Marine Reserve
Events	2015 Fox Glacier helicopter crash

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
Rivers	Adams River Arahura River Arawhata River Balfour River Barlow River Barn River Bettne River Big Wainihinihi River Burke River Butler River Callery River Cascade River Clarke River Clearwater River Cook River / Weheka Copland River Cropp River Deception River Donald River Douglas River Drake River Duncan River Edison River Fork River Fox River Gorge River Gunn River Haast River Hacket River Hall River Hapuka River Harman River Hinatua River Hokitika River Hope River Jackson River Jerry River Kaniere River Karangarua River Kokatahi River Lambert River Landsborough River Lord River Macfarlane River Mahitahi River Jacobs River Manakaiaua River Maori River Martyr River Mikonui River Moeraki River Morse River Mueller River Mungo River Ngatau River North Barlow River Ohinemaka River Ōhinetamatea River Ōkārito River Okuru River Ōmoeroa River Oneone River Otehake River Ōtira River Ōtoko River Paringa River Perth River Poerua River Rolleston River Rotokino River Ruera River Ship Creek Smoothwater River Smyth River Spoon River Stafford River Strauchon River Styx River Taipo River Taramakau River Te Naihi River Te Rahotaiepa River Toaroha River Tōtara River Totarakaitorea River Troyte River Tuke River Turnbull River Waiatoto River Waiho River Waikūkūpa River Waipara River Waita River Waitaha River Waitangitāhuna River Waitangiroto River Wanganui River Whakaikai River Whakapohai River Whataroa River Whitcombe River Wilkinson River Willberg River Williamson River Wills River

Categories:

Name

Geography

See also

References