The Mata River is a river of the

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

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 ...

. It flows northeast from the slopes of

Mount Arowhana Mount Arowhana is a 1440-metre (4724 ft) mountain that is part of the backbone of the Raukumara Range in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. The range forms part of a line of mountains extending along the eastern side of the North Is ...

in the Raukumara Range to join with the

Tapuaeroa River The Tapuaeroa River is a river of the Gisborne Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows southeast from its sources in the Raukumara Range, joining its waters with those of the Mata River close to the town of Ruatoria, the resulting flow b ...

close to the settlement of

Ruatoria Ruatoria ( mi, Ruatōria) is a town in the Waiapu Valley of the Gisborne Region in the northeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island. The town was originally known as Cross Roads then Manutahi and was later named Ruatorea in 1913, after the Mā ...

, in doing so forming the

Waiapu River The Waiapu River is a river in the Gisborne District of the North Island of New Zealand, with a total length of approximately . Found in the north-east of the Waiapu Valley, it flows north-east from the joining of the Mata River and the Tapuaer ...

, which reaches 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 ...

near

Rangitukia Rangitukia is a small settlement 10 kilometres south of East Cape in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It is near the mouth of the Waiapu River. The settlement is an important place in Ngāti Porou and the founding place for Christian mi ...

, south of

East Cape East Cape is the easternmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. It is located at the northern end of the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It can also refer to the broader Gisborne cape. East Cape was originally named "C ...

Coordinates

*Source *Mouth Rivers of the Gisborne District Rivers of New Zealand {{Gisborne-river-stub