Kawarau
Kawarau 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
- -45.02°, 168.97°
About Kawarau
The Kawarau River is a river in the South Island of New Zealand. It drains Lake Wakatipu in northwestern Otago via the lake's Frankton Arm. The river flows generally eastwards for about 60 kilometres (37 mi) and passes through the steep Kawarau Gorge until it joins Lake Dunstan near Cromwell. Before the construction of the Clyde High Dam, the Kawarau joined the Clutha River / Mata-Au in a spectacular confluence at Cromwell. The Shotover River enters the Kawarau from the north; the Nevis River enters it from the south. With many rapids and strong currents, the river can be dangerous and has claimed many lives. It is popular for bungy jumping and kayaking.
A natural bridge, Whatatorere, where the river narrows to 1.2 metres (3.9 ft), was important first to early Māori and then to goldminers as the only place the Mata-Au and the Kawarau could be crossed without boats. Māori were heading for the Cardrona Valley to reach Wānaka, and on to the Haast Pass to seek pounamu. The miners were seeking gold in the Arrow Goldfields.
Now the main road to Queenstown, State Highway 6, runs through the Kawarau Gorge.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Kawarau River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Kawarau in Depth
History
For Ngāi Tahu, the river was the main travel route from the Mata-Au to Lake Wakatipu. A key feature was the narrow gorge at Whatatorere or Pōtiki-whata-rumaki-nao, the only place where the Kawarau and Mata-Au rivers could be leapt over. It connected to a route over the Crown Range and on to the Cardrona Valley that led to the West Coast.
In the 19th century, alluvial gold was extracted from the river. The Goldfields Mining Centre, downstream of the gorge, features a working exhibition of 19th century gold mining techniques. Some of the miners' huts remain today, many of them close to thriving vineyards.
In 1924 a company was formed to drain the river by blocking off Lake Wakatipu, with the intent of then collecting gold from the river bed.
Adventure tourism
The first European to visit the area was Nathanael Chalmers, who was guided inland by Chiefs Reko and Kaikōura in 1853. Reko and Kaikōura showed Chalmers the rock bridge Whatatorere at Roaring Meg, which was the only place that the Kawarau River could be crossed, and returned him down the river on a mōkihi, a flax reed open kayak. In 1910, 57 years after the event, Nathanael Chalmers remembered his boat trip through the Cromwell Gorge: ‘I shall never forget the “race” through the gorge... my heart was literally in my mouth, but those two old men seemed to care nothing for the current.’
More recent tourist adventure activities on the river include riverboarding, jet boating, white water rafting, river surfing, and bungy jumping.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Kawarau River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Kawarau: Key Facts
| Length | 60 km |
|---|---|
| Mouth | Lake Dunstan |
| Tributaries | Arrow River, Shotover River, Nevis River |
Facts from Wikidata Q863681 (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
Kawarau: Quick Answers
- Where is Kawarau?
- Kawarau is located in New Zealand, at 45.0179° S, 168.9709° E.
- Are there dams on the Kawarau?
- No dam on the Kawarau is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.