The Omanawa River is a river of the

Bay of Plenty Region The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway ...

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 ...

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 ...

. The New Zealand

Ministry for Culture and Heritage The Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH; ) is the department of the New Zealand Government responsible for supporting the arts, culture, built heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting sectors in New Zealand and advising government on ...

gives a translation of "place of Manawa" for ''Ōmanawa''. An important tributary of the Wairoa River it flows north from the northern edge of the

Mamaku Plateau The Mamaku Ranges are a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand. Located to the west of Lake Rotorua and north of Lake Taupō, they lie to the immediate south of the Kaimai Range and can be thought of as an extension of it, in much the s ...

, through a valley to enter a long narrow gorge through which the river flows in a series of rapids before above the confluence with the Wairoa the river drops 35 metres over the Omanawa Falls. At the base of the falls is a large deep pool approximately 100 metres in diameter. At the back and under the lip of the falls, the river has hollowed out a huge cavern. To one side of the falls is the

Omanawa Falls Power Station The Omanawa Falls Power Station is a run of the river hydroelectric facility on the Omanawa River, in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. Built in 1915 to supply electricity to the town of Tauranga, it was the Southern Hemisphere's first undergrou ...

which is powered by water diverted around the falls. The Omanawa joins the Wairoa River about from its mouth and southwest of

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

References

Rivers of the Bay of Plenty Region Rivers of New Zealand {{BayofPlenty-river-stub

See also

References