The Punakitere River is a river of the
Northland Region 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 ...
's
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 is a tributary of the
Taheke River, which forms the
Waimā River, though it is longer than the Waimā itself. The Punakitere is polluted, especially with
e-coli and
phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
, and has its origins in several streams which flow through and to the south of
Kaikohe, as well as from Mount Hikurangi.
The rivers flow predominantly westward to reach the Waimā close to the small settlement of
Moehau
In New Zealand folklore, the moehau (also called the maeroero) is a creature said to dwell in the Coromandel- Moehau ranges of New Zealand's North Island. Some Māori people suggest that the creature is a descendant of the maero, but another expl ...
.
See also
*
List of rivers of New Zealand
References
External links
* Photos
1902 Taheke Falls1910 bridge1911 floating logs down the river
Far North District
Rivers of the Northland Region
Rivers of New Zealand
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