The Awarau River, usually known as Larry's Creek is located within the
South Island of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. The river is about long and runs northwest from its
headwaters
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
in the
Victoria Range to its
confluence with the
Inangahua River north of
Reefton
Reefton is a small town in the West Coast region of New Zealand, some 80 km northeast of Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is 44 km south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is 34 km to the north, Maruia is 63&nb ...
.
It also drains part of the Brunner Range and there was a track along that range linking to
Lyell by 1901,
though none existed in 1874. A track also ran south over Kirwan Hill to the
Montgomerie River.
A forestry road runs north of the river from SH69 to Larrys Creek Track, which runs a further to the site of the Caledonian Gold Mine. The mine operated from 1874 to 1910, with shafts up to deep. It is the most northerly in the
Reefton goldfield, in
albite-epidote hornfels facies, which are less than 370 million years old. Remnants of a
stamping battery and a
Robey portable steam engine are at the mine site. Colinton was formed in 1874 as the township for the mine (and the river was sometimes called Colin River). By 1878 it had a population of 44, but was gone by 1901. Just upstream is a deep, rocky gorge.
The only bridges over the river are the
Stillwater–Ngākawau railway and
SH69. Railway bridge 74 was a
road-rail bridge of 7 spans, built in 1905 for £2,915.
A bridge was planned at Colinton in 1880, but never built.
Nothofagus fusca (red beech, or tawhai raunui) forests grow to about the contour, with
Nothofagus menziesii (silver beech, tawhai, or tahina) up to the
tree line
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...
at about .
Tūī
The tūī (''Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae'') is a boisterous medium-sized bird native to New Zealand. It is blue, green, and bronze colored with a distinctive white throat tuft. It is an endemic passerine bird of New Zealand, and the only spe ...
,
Anthornis melanura (korimako, makomako, kōmako, or bellbird),
Petroica macrocephala (ngirungiru, or tomtit) and
Petroica australis (Kakaruwai, or South Island robin) live in the bush.
References
Buller District
Rivers of the West Coast, New Zealand
Rivers of New Zealand
{{WestCoastNZ-river-stub