The Waipawa River is a

braided river A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment l ...

of southern

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, in

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 eastern

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 from the slopes of Te Atuaoparapara (once known as 'Sixty-six') in the

Ruahine Range The Ruahine Range is the largest of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand that form a ridge running parallel with the east coast of the island between East Cape and Wellington. The ridge is at its most pronounced from the cen ...

southeast past the town of

Waipawa Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is locate ...

before joining the

Tukituki River The Tukituki River is found in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It flows from the Ruahine Ranges to the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of Hawke's Bay. The river flows for , east and then northeast, passing through the town of Waipuk ...

. The river rises at the Waipawa Saddle, which is also the source of the Waikamaka River. West of Waipawa, near Ruataniwha, the Mangaonuku Stream is a tributary on the northern bank. The Waipawa's flow is generally greater than that of the Tukituki River, into which it flows. The

Old Bed of Waipawa River The Old Bed of Waipawa River is a river of the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows roughly parallel with and north of the Waipawa River, which it almost meets to the east of Waipawa. It flows into the Tukituki River via the ...

flows roughly parallel with and north of the present Waipawa River to join the Tukituki through the Papanui Stream, south west of

Lake Poukawa Lake Poukawa is a small shallow hardwater lake in the Hawke's Bay Region, North Island, New Zealand. It is located about 20 km south-west of Hastings, New Zealand, close to the settlement of Te Hauke. It is the largest lake lying within a ...

. The Waipawa changed its course during a flood in 1868. River quality is sampled at the SH50 bridge. At that site its

Macroinvertebrate Community Index Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) is an index used in New Zealand to measure the water quality of fresh water streams. The presence or lack of macroinvertebrates such as insects, worms and snails in a river or stream can give a biological in ...

is C (of grades A to D) and likely degrading, but it is in the best 25% of rivers for most samples, except clarity. In warm weather

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

sometimes develop. Other main routes crossing the river are SH2 and the Palmerston North–Gisborne railway at Waipawa. There are hundreds of

banded dotterel The double-banded plover (''Charadrius bicinctus''), known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate ''Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus'', which breeds ...

(pohowera) and

pied stilt The pied stilt (''Himantopus leucocephalus''), also known as the white-headed stilt, is a shorebird in the family Recurvirostridae. It is widely distributed with a large total population size and apparently stable population trend, occurring in ...

around the river. Waipawa Forks

Hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hid ...

provides accommodation close to the headwaters of the river. On the ridge to the north, above the headwaters, is Sunrise Hut. It is the most popular hut in the Ruahine Park and was renovated in 2020. A day walk is possible, via Sunrise and the Saddle.

References

External links

1910 photo of bridge at Waipawa

Rivers of the Hawke's Bay Region Rivers of New Zealand {{HawkesBay-river-stub