Waitaki River

Information about Waitaki River

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The Waitaki River system
The Waitaki River is a large river in the South Island of New Zealand, some 110 km long. It is the major river of the Mackenzie Basin.

It is a braided river which has Lake Benmore, Lake Aviemore and Lake Waitaki at its headwaters. These are ultimately fed by three large glacial lakes, Pukaki, Tekapo, and Ohau. Lake Benmore and Lake Aviemore are contained by hydroelectric dams, Benmore Dam and Aviemore Dam.

The Waitaki has several tributaries, notably the Ahuriri River and the Hakataramea River. It passes Kurow and Glenavy before entering the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island.

The middle of the river bed forms a political boundary between the Canterbury and Otago regions. A proposal for a series of canals and dams was made by the Meridian Energy for irrigation and electricity generation on the river. This scheme, known as Project Aqua, planned to divert up to 77% of the lower river's flow to create a hydroelectric scheme, but these plans were dropped in March 2004. Lack of commercial viability was given as the major reason for the scheme's shelving, although strenuous public protest may also have been a major contributing factor.

The river is popular for recreational fishing and jetboating.

See also

References

  • Waitaki River, An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 26-Sep-2006.

External links

river is a natural waterway that transits water through a landscape from higher to lower elevations. It is an integral component of the water cycle. The water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge (as seen at baseflow
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Satellite view of South Island

Geography
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Location New Zealand <nowiki /> <nowiki /> <nowiki /> <nowiki />
Area
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Anthem
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Capital Wellington

Largest city Auckland
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Mackenzie Basin (popularly and traditionally known as the Mackenzie Country), is an elliptical intermontane basin near the centre of the South Island of New Zealand.
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Braided Channel - A silt Island within the main river. A braided river is one of a number of channel types and has a channel that consists of a network of small channels separated by small and often temporary islands called braid bars or, in British usage,
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Location South Island

Lake type reservoir
Primary sources Ohau, Pukaki, Tekapo

Basin countries New Zealand

Surface area 75 km²

Surface elevation 361 m

Lake Benmore
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Lake type Reservoir
Primary sources Waitaki
Primary outflows Waitaki

Basin countries New Zealand

Surface area 29 km2

Surface elevation
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Location South Island

Primary sources Waitaki
Primary outflows Waitaki

Basin countries New Zealand

Surface elevation 230 m


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Coordinates Coordinates:

Primary sources Tasman River

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Location South Island
Coordinates Coordinates:

Primary sources Godley River
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Coordinates Coordinates:
Lake type glacial lake
Primary sources Hopkins, Dobson

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Hydroelectricity is electricity produced by hydropower. Hydroelectricity now supplies about 715,000 MWe or 19% of world electricity (16% in 2003), accounting for over 63% of the total electricity from renewables in 2005.
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Benmore Dam is the largest dam within the Waitaki power scheme on the borders of Otago and Canterbury regions in New Zealand's South Island. There are an eight other power stations in the valley.

The dam is the largest earth-filled water-retaining structure in New Zealand.
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The Aviemore Dam is a dam of the Waitaki River in New Zealand. Built from earth and concrete in the 1960s (and completed in 1968)[1] to dam Lake Aviemore, it is one of the major dams of Meridian Energy, and is used to power a hydroelectric power plant.
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The Ahuriri River is a river in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand.

The headwaters are on the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps. The river flows for 70 kilometres through the southernmost part of the Mackenzie Basin before reaching Lake Benmore, one
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The Hakataramea River flows generally south through the Mackenzie Basin in Canterbury, New Zealand.

A major tributary of the Waitaki River, it flows for 70 kilometres before joining the river from the northeast just below the town of Kurow in the village of Hakataramea.
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Kurow is a town in the Waitaki Valley in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the Otago region, 55 kilometres inland from Oamaru. Kurow lies close to several major hydroelectric projects.
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Glenavy is a small town in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located at the southern extreme of the Canterbury region on the alluvial fan of the Waitaki River, three kilometres from the river's outflow into the Pacific Ocean.
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Earth's oceans
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The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Timaru is a major port city in the southern Canterbury region of New Zealand, located 160 kilometres south of Christchurch and about 200 kilometres north of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island.
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Oamaru ( pronunciation   (help info ) ) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, and is the main town in the Waitaki District.
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The New Zealand region of Canterbury (Māori: Waitaha) is mainly composed of the Canterbury Plains and the surrounding mountains.
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Otago ( pronunciation   (help info ) ) is a region of New Zealand in the south-east of the South Island.
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Meridian Energy Limited

State-owned enterprise
Founded 1999
Headquarters Wellington, New Zealand

Key people Dr Keith Turner, Chief Executive
Industry Electricity generation and retail
Website http://www.meridianenergy.co.
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Project Aqua was a proposed hydroelectric scheme for the lower Waitaki River in New Zealand.[1] It met with considerable opposition by some of the residents of the area, and although the scheme also had considerable support locally, Meridian Energy decided in March 2004
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2007: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
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Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish by hooking, trapping, or gathering. By extension, the term fishing is applied to pursuing other aquatic animals such as various types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, frogs, and some edible marine invertebrates.
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jetboat is a boat propelled by a jet of water ejected from the back of the craft. Unlike a powerboat or motorboat that uses a propeller in the water behind the boat, a jetboat draws the water from under the boat into a pump-jet inside the boat, then expels it through a nozzle at
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  • Aan River
  • Acheron River
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  • Adams River
  • Ahaura River
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  • Alexander River

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