Hurunui River

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River in Canterbury, New Zealand

title: "Hurunui River" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hurunui-district", "rivers-of-the-canterbury-region", "rivers-of-new-zealand"] description: "River in Canterbury, New Zealand" topic_path: "geography/new-zealand" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurunui_River" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary River in Canterbury, New Zealand ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox river"]

FieldValue
nameHurunui River
imageCyclist crossing the Hurunui River.JPG
image_captionA mountainbiker crossing the Hurunui River upstream of Lake Sumner
source1_locationSouthern Alps
mouth_locationPacific Ocean
subdivision_type1Country
subdivision_name1New Zealand
length150 km
mouth_elevationsea level
discharge1_min16.8 m3/s
discharge1_avg53 m3/s
basin_size2671 km2
pushpin_mapNew Zealand
pushpin_map_captionLocation of the mouth within New Zealand
::

| name = Hurunui River | image = Cyclist crossing the Hurunui River.JPG | image_size = | image_caption = A mountainbiker crossing the Hurunui River upstream of Lake Sumner | source1_location = Southern Alps | mouth_location = Pacific Ocean | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = New Zealand | length = 150 km | source1_elevation = | mouth_elevation = sea level | discharge1_min = 16.8 m3/s | discharge1_avg = 53 m3/s | basin_size = 2671 km2 | pushpin_map = New Zealand | pushpin_map_caption= Location of the mouth within New Zealand The Hurunui River is the fourth largest of the four principal rivers in north Canterbury, New Zealand, with a catchment area of 2670 km2. The river flows from the eastern side of the Southern Alps, to the Pacific Ocean.

Geography

The head of the Hurunui River is at Harper Pass; on the other side of the pass is the Taramakau River. Some of the tributaries include the Jollie Brook, the Hurunui River South Branch, the Glenrae River and the Mandamus River. The Hurunui River flows through Lake Sumner. A hot pool has been constructed at the base of a small waterfall on a side stream of the river.

Recreation

The river has rapids rated class II and III on the international scale of river difficulty and is popular for kayaking. The best whitewater is considered to be below the confluence of the north and south branches of the river in Maori Gully and in the Harwarden Gorge.

Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were introduced from California in the 1900s for game fishing.

Water conservation order

On 30 August 2007, the New Zealand Fish and Game Council and the New Zealand Recreational Canoeing Association (now known as Whitewater NZ) lodged an application with the Ministry for the Environment for a Water Conservation Order to protect the Hurunui River.

On 14 August 2009, the Special Tribunal considering the application recommended to the Minister that a conservation order be granted for the North Branch of the Hurunui River but not the South Branch. On 2 September, Whitewater NZ lodged an appeal of the Tribunal's decision with the Environment Court in order to include the South Branch of the Hurunui River.

Water project

The Hurunui Water Project has applied to Environment Canterbury, the regional council responsible for administering the river, for resource consents to dam the river and to take water for irrigation. The proposed scheme involves a weir that will raise the level of Lake Sumner, a dam and lake on the south branch of the river and an intake on the main stem of the river.

In October 2009, the Hurunui Water Project said it would delay the processing of its applications for resource consents for up to a year so that the Canterbury Water Management Strategy could address the issue of water storage. A march planned in Christchurch as a protest to the scheme still went ahead as scheduled two days after the announcement. As well as hundreds of protest marchers, kayakers and fishers travelled down the Avon River. Sam Mahon, a Canterbury-based artist concerned about water pollution, made a bust of Environment Minister Nick Smith out of dairy-cow dung in order to publicise the campaign to stop the Hurunui River from being dammed for irrigation.

In February 2010 the Hurunui Water Project announced that it would reactivate the resource consent process. On 16 November 2010, the Hurunui Water Project lodged a High Court appeal of Environment Canterbury's decision to make the damming of the Hurunui River a non-complying activity in the Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan.{{cite web |url = http://ecan.govt.nz/publications/Plans/nrrp-chapters-4-8-appeal-hurunui-water-project-161110.pdf |title = Notice of Appeal under S 66 of the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Act 2010 |publisher = Hurunui Water Project Limited |author = Duncan Cotterill |access-date = 20 November 2010 |date = 16 November 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110617050750/http://ecan.govt.nz/publications/Plans/nrrp-chapters-4-8-appeal-hurunui-water-project-161110.pdf |archive-date = 17 June 2011 |url-status = dead |df = dmy-all

In September 2012 the public notification of resource consent recommenced. The scope includes the construction of four dams on the Waitohi river, extraction of up to 49.2 m3/s of water from the main stem of the Hurunui river, extraction of up to 42.4 m3/s from the Waitohi River, run-of-river hydro-power generation, and storage of 6.5 e6m3 of water in other dams on the plains. By comparison the existing flow of the Hurunui river is 53 m3/s (mean) and low-flow of 16.8 m3/s.{{cite web | title=Canterbury Water Management Strategy | date=6 December 2010 | url= http://ecan.govt.nz/publications/Plans/cwms-strategic-assessment-hurunui-waiau.pdf | publisher=URS Corporation | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130219114350/http://ecan.govt.nz/publications/Plans/cwms-strategic-assessment-hurunui-waiau.pdf |archive-date=19 February 2013}}

References

References

  1. "Hurunui River Catchment".
  2. (2010-12-06). "Canterbury Water Management Strategy".
  3. Robert Logan, ''Waimakariri. The story of Canterbury's "river of cold rushing water"''. {{ISBN. 0-473-00520-4, Robert Logan, Christchurch, 1987, page 6.
  4. {{LINZ
  5. [http://rivers.org.nz/nz/canterbury/hurunui Whitewater NZ website], retrieved 23 July 2009.
  6. Egarr, Graeme. (1988). "Whitewater: River Running in New Zealand".
  7. McDowall, R. M. (1990) New Zealand freshwater fishes: a natural history and guide. Heinemann-Reed, Auckland, 553 p.
  8. [http://www.fishandgame.org.nz/Site/Features/Features_Media_Hurunui.aspx Protection sought for Hurunui River] {{Webarchive. link. (23 November 2011 New Zealand Fish and Game Council press release, 30 August 2007, retrieved 1 October 2007.)
  9. [http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/water/freshwater/water-conservation/hurunui-tribunals-report.pdf Report of Special Tribunal] {{Webarchive. link. (22 May 2010 , Ministry for the Environment website, 2009-08-14, retrieved 16 October 2009. Or download from [http://rivers.org.nz/system/files/Hurunui_Tribunal_report_200908.pdf Whitewater NZ website] {{Webarchive). link. (14 May 2010 , Or download from [http://groups.opengovt.org.nz/groups/ninja-talk/files/f/902413-2009-08-16T034455Z/Hurunui_Tribunal_report_200908.pdf NZ Open Government Online Groups].)
  10. [http://rivers.org.nz/article/appeal-re-hurunui-wco Appeal re Hurunui WCO], Whitewater NZ website, 2009-09-02, retrieved 16 October 2009.
  11. [http://ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/consent-projects/pages/hurunui-water-project.aspx Hurunui Water Project] {{Webarchive. link. (30 September 2009 , Environment Canterbury website, 2009-08-13, retrieved 16 October 2009.)
  12. Marc Greenhill, [http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/2964887/Hurunui-scheme-onhold-for-up-to-year Hurunui scheme on hold for up to year], The Press (Stuff.co.nz/Fairfax Media Ltd), 2009-10-15, retrieved 16 October 2009. Archived at [https://web.archive.org/web/20091016084452/http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/2964887/Hurunui-scheme-onhold-for-up-to-year WebCite]
  13. TV ONE NEWS. (16 October 2009). "Hundreds protest Hurunui dam project". Television New Zealand.
  14. Williams, David. (17 October 2009). "Protesters make waves over plan". [[The Press]].
  15. Jeff Hampton, [http://www.3news.co.nz/Artist-protests-damage-to-environment-with-Nick-Smith-dung-sculpture/tabid/419/articleID/127413/cat/67/Default.aspx Artist protests damage to environment with Nick Smith dung sculpture], TV3 News, 2009-10-29, retrieved 30 October 2009. Archived at [https://web.archive.org/web/20120406083951/http://www.3news.co.nz/Artist-protests-damage-to-environment-with-Nick-Smith-dung-sculpture/tabid/419/articleID/127413/cat/67/Default.aspx WebCite].
  16. Williams, David. (1 February 2010). "Resource consent requests reactivated". [[The Press]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

hurunui-districtrivers-of-the-canterbury-regionrivers-of-new-zealand