The Hurunui River is the fourth largest of the four principal rivers in north

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, New Zealand, with a catchment area of . The river flows from the eastern side of the

Southern Alps The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern ...

, to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Geography

The head of the Hurunui River is at

Harper Pass Harper Pass (elevation ), previously known as Hurunui Pass or sometimes Taramakau Pass, is an alpine pass between Canterbury and the West Coast in New Zealand. It was the most important crossing for Māori to obtain pounamu. The first European ...

; on the other side of the pass is the

Taramakau River The Taramakau River is a river of the West Coast Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It rises in the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana near Harper Pass, due east of Hokitika, and runs westward for into the Tasman Sea south of Gr ...

. Some of the tributaries include the Jollie Brook, the

Hurunui River South Branch The Hurunui River South Branch is a river in the Hurunui District of Canterbury, New Zealand. The river originates in the Crawford Range, with southern tributaries flowing from the Dampier Range. One of the inflows on the true-left is Mason Stre ...

, the Glenrae River and the Mandamus River. The Hurunui River flows through

Lake Sumner Lake Sumner, known as ''Hoka Kura'' in Māori, is a lake situated 100 km northwest of Christchurch in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. The lake is located in the Lake Sumner Forest Park; the Hurunui River and several other lakes (Loch K ...

. 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 The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...

(''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 A water conservation order is a legal ruling to protect aspects of water bodies. It may be to protect the quantity of the water itself or for any issues relating to the water body as a whole. New Zealand In New Zealand, a Water Conservation Order i ...

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 The Environment Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Taiao o Aotearoa) is a specialist court for plans, resource consents and environmental issues. It mainly deals with issues arising under the Resource Management Act, meaning that it covers a w ...

in order to include the South Branch of the Hurunui River.

Water project

The Hurunui Water Project has applied to

Environment Canterbury Environment Canterbury, frequently abbreviated to ECan. is the promotional name for the Canterbury Regional Council. It is the regional council for Canterbury, the largest region in the South Island of New Zealand. It is part of New Zealand's s ...

, the regional council responsible for administering the river, for

resource consent A resource consent is the authorisation given to certain activities or uses of natural and physical resources required under the New Zealand Resource Management Act (the "RMA"). Some activities may either be specifically authorised by the RMA or ...

s 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 The Canterbury Water Management Strategy is being developed in Canterbury, New Zealand to address water related issues in the region. It was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry for the Environment and Environment Can ...

could address the issue of water storage. A march planned in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

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 Sam Mahon (born ) is an artist and author living in Waikari in North Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. He is the son of Peter Mahon, a lawyer notable for the Mt Erebus disaster inquiry. Works Sam Mahon has become involved with p ...

, 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. 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 of water from the main stem of the Hurunui river, extraction of up to from the Waitohi River, run-of-river hydro-power generation, and storage of of water in other dams on the plains. By comparison the existing flow of the Hurunui river is (mean) and low-flow of .

References

External links