The Tawatahi River is a short river of the

Waikato Region Waikato () is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, t ...

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 into the northern shore of

Raglan Harbour Raglan is a small beachside town located 48 km west of Hamilton, New Zealand on State Highway 23. It is known for its surfing, and volcanic black sand beaches. History The Ngāti Māhanga iwi occupied the area around Raglan in the lat ...

Geology

The headwaters are listed as worthy of preservation for their geology - "New Katuku Trig / Pukewharangi Hill

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

fossil locality" Most of the rock in the valley is Kotuku siltstone, a massive to crudely bedded, light- to blue-grey jointed,

calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an adje ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

. The upper slopes are mainly Mangiti Sandstone and Patikirau Siltstone, also calcareous rocks. All were laid on a deepening mid to outer

shelf Shelf ( : shelves) may refer to: * Shelf (storage), a flat horizontal surface used for display and storage Geology * Continental shelf, the extended perimeter of a continent, usually covered by shallow seas * Ice shelf, a thick platform of ice f ...

in the Whaingaroan age, about 41 million years ago.

Alternative names

The river has also been called Burgess's Creek, after the farmer who owned Burgess Point to the west, Kerikeri Peninsula, or Puketutu. James Burgess farmed almost 600 sheep in the late C19th, having previously been a shepherd on Te Ākau Station, which had included this area. He had burnt the

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

and sown grass on the peninsula.

Wildlife

A 2012 survey found the estuary had a wide band of rushes grading into native forest, with

mud crabs Mud crab may refer to any crab that lives in or near mud, such as: *''Scylla serrata'' *''Scylla tranquebarica'' *''Scylla paramamosain'' *''Scylla olivacea'' *Members of the family Panopeidae, such as ''Panopeus herbstii'' *Members of the family ...

, titiko, coastal daisy, makaka, oioi,

fescue ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

, marsh clubrush, remuremu, sea primrose, sand buttercup, kowhai, kanuka, miro, tanekaha and hangehange.

External links

* 1:50,000 map http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz53469/Tawatahi-River/Waikato * most of the river is close to Mangiti Road, so some images are available in street scene on https://maps.google.com/

References

Rivers of Waikato Waikato District Rivers of New Zealand {{Waikato-river-stub

Geology

Alternative names

Wildlife

See also

External links

References