The Opuiaki 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 ...

. It flows north from 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 ...

into

Lake McLaren A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

, to reach the Wairoa River 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 ...

. The river contributes to the

Kaimai hydro power scheme The Kaimai hydro power scheme is a hydroelectric power scheme on the Wairoa River in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. The scheme is operated by TrustPower.Ngatuhoa Lodge is now. From the dam a tunnel was dug, which channels the water into the Ngatuhoa Stream, where it enters just above another dam built there. Provisions are made to maintain some flow in both streams. Digging the tunnel was a challenging operation due to the geology of the area, formed by volcanic activity from various volcanoes, with clay and other sediment in between. Artesian waters also flow between the layers of rock and contribute to the flow of the streams in the area. Te Rere I Oturu Falls are on the Opuiaki River, with the coordinates of 37° 55' 34.89" S 175° 59' 55.38" E. The name is based on a legend about a member of the

Ngāti Ranginui Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends from Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, to south of Te Puke in the south, and to Tauranga in the east. The rohe does not exten ...

tribe. His name was Oturu and while being pursued by members of his tribe, he jumped from the falls. The falls are about wide and high. The Opuiaki river is mainly rain-fed and the flow can change rapidly during and immediately after a downpour. The falls can be reached via hiking tracks starting at the Ngatuhoa Lodge. A gravel forestry road runs past at some distance, from where a hiking track leads to the falls. The river runs through, and is part of, the Opuiaki Ecological Area, created for the protection of native flora and fauna. The Department of Conservation (DOC) carries out pest control and breeding programs, including for the

kōkako Kōkako (''Callaeas'') are two species of endangered forest birds which are endemic to New Zealand, the North Island kōkako (''Callaeas wilsoni'') and the presumably extinct South Island kōkako (''Callaeas cinereus''). They are both slate-gre ...

, an endangered native bird species.

References

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

See also

References