The Tokomairaro River is located in

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

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 southeast for some 50 kilometres (30 mi), reaching 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 ...

Toko Mouth Toko Mouth is a settlement close to the south bank of the mouth of the Tokomairaro River, some south of Dunedin and southeast of Milton in Otago, New Zealand. The settlement comprises some 70 holiday homes, of which a small percentage are ...

50 kilometres (30 mi) south of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. The town of

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

is located on the Tokomairaro's floodplain, close to the junction of its two main branches (which run past the north and south ends of the town). The name of the river is

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, and translates roughly as 'place where canoe must be poled' (a possible reference to the method needed to travel through the extensive wetlands, instead of the usual paddling). The Tokomairaro River is prone to seasonal flooding during the heavy rainfall months, August to October. Local industrial buildings have been forced to build high concrete walls around their property to reduce flood damage each year. The spelling of the river changed from "Tokomairiro River" to "Tokomairaro River" on 28 July 2016. Both spellings have been in use since mid-1800s, however "Tokomairaro" was deemed to be correct.

References

Rivers of Otago Clutha District Rivers of New Zealand Milton, New Zealand {{Otago-river-stub