Rangitata
Rangitata 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
- -43.85°, 171.26°
About Rangitata
The Rangitata River is one of the braided rivers of the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand. It flows southeast for 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean 30 kilometres (19 mi) northeast of Timaru. The river has a catchment area of 1,773 square kilometres (685 mi2), and a mean annual flow of 95 cubic metres per second (3,400 cu ft/s) at Klondyke.
The Māori name "Rangitata" (Rakitata) has been variously translated as "day of lowering clouds", "close sky", and "the side of the sky".
The river formed the Rangitata Valley, in the center of the Southern Alps, and the on-location photography of the Edoras set from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Return of the King was filmed in this valley, on and around Mount Sunday. Several remote sheep stations are located near Mount Sunday. These include Mesopotamia, Mt Potts, and Erewhon. Erewhon was named by Samuel Butler who was the first white settler to live at the Mesopotamia sheep station. Erewhon is also the name of a novel written by Butler anonymously in 1872. In 1932 an outdoor ice skating rink was established by the river beneath Mount Harper.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Rangitata River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Rangitata in Depth
History
Towards its mouth, the river originally split into two streams, forming a large delta island (Rangitata Island). This island was crossed by State Highway 1 and the Main South Line railway between Ealing and Rangitata and thus was an island connected directly by New Zealand's main state highway and one of its primary railway lines. However, the south branch of this split has since been blocked, and the riverbed developed for agricultural purposes. Its course remains as a flood plain, but water does not normally flow here any longer.
On 23 December 1999, Fish and Game New Zealand lodged an application for a water conservation order on the Rangitata River. In June 2006, the water conservation order was gazetted.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Rangitata River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Rangitata: Key Facts
| Length | 120 km |
|---|---|
| Drainage basin | 1,773 km² |
Facts from Wikidata Q2130977 (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
Rangitata: Quick Answers
- Where is Rangitata?
- Rangitata is located in New Zealand, at 43.8526° S, 171.2619° E.
- Are there dams on the Rangitata?
- No dam on the Rangitata is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.