Inangahua
Inangahua is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- -42.15°, 171.92°

About Inangahua
The Inangahua River is located in the north-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is a major tributary of the Buller River, where it joins at the town of Inangahua Junction.
The Inangahua River begins near the Rahu Saddle and flows northwest for 35 kilometres (22 mi), followed by State Highway 7, to the town of Reefton. The Reefton Power Station, now decommissioned, operated with water taken from the river from 1888 to 1949. At Reefton it turns north and continues for 30 kilometres (19 mi), passing Cronadun, before reaching the Buller some 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the larger river's outflow into the Tasman Sea near Westport. The Inangahua's tributaries include the Waitahu River, Te Wharau River, and Awarau River.
The name Inangahua is from the Māori language; inanga means whitebait, small edible fish of Galaxias spp., and hua may mean the drying and preserving of them in sealed containers or may mean plenty of. The river was known for big catches of whitebait.
Prior to 1866 settlers sometimes used the name Thackeray River, rather than Inangahua. William Makepeace Thackeray was a close friend of Charles Buller, after whom the Buller River was named.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Inangahua River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Inangahua: Key Facts
| Length | 70 km |
|---|---|
| Mouth | Buller River |
| Tributaries | Te Wharau River, Waitahu River |
Facts from Wikidata Q1660903 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Inangahua: Quick Answers
- Where is Inangahua?
- Inangahua is located in New Zealand, at 42.1548° S, 171.9180° E.
- Are there dams on the Inangahua?
- No dam on the Inangahua is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.