The Waitawheta River is a 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 ...
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 flows from a point south-east of
Mount Te Aroha in the
Kaimai Range
The Kaimai Range (sometimes referred to as the ''Kaimai Ranges'') is a mountain range in the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of a series of ranges, with the Coromandel Range to the north and the Mamaku Ranges to the south. The Kaimai Ra ...
to the
Karangahake Gorge
The Karangahake Gorge lies between the Coromandel and Kaimai ranges, at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. A sharply winding canyon, it was formed by the Ohinemuri River. State Highway 2 passes throug ...
at the foot of the
Coromandel Peninsula
The Coromandel Peninsula ( mi, Te Tara-O-Te-Ika-A-Māui) on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the we ...
to reach the
Ohinemuri River
The Ohinemuri River is located in the northern half of New Zealand's North Island, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula.
The river's source is north-east of the town of Waihi, close to the shore of the Bay of Plenty, but flows west rather ...
at Karangahake, five kilometres east of
Paeroa
Paeroa is a town in the Hauraki District of the Waikato Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula, it is close to the junction of the Waihou River and Ohinemuri River, and is approximately 20 kilo ...
.
After skirting the small settlement of Waitawheta, the river flows through the increasingly narrow Waitawheta Gorge before reaching the Karangahake Gorge. From the Karangahake end, several spectacular walks
lead into the gorge - the "Windows Walk" through mining tunnels in the cliff face high above the river, the Crown Tramway Track (partly carved into the rock), and the Crown Track (also referred to as the Waitawheta Pipeline Walk), which leads further into the gorge and to the Dickey Flat campsite. The Dickey Flat campsite is also accessible via Dickey Flat Road.
Mining
The confluence of the Waitawheta River and the Ohinemuri River used to be the centre of the gold mining industry in the Karangahake Gorge area, with the water of the Waitawheta River used for powering
stamping batteries. Tailings from the Talisman Mine in the Waitawheta Gorge were tipped out into the gorge via windows at the ends of the mining tunnels. These tunnels and windows are now partly accessible via the Windows Walk, as is the Woodstock Underground Pumphouse on the river's true left and further into the gorge. Remnants of the mining tram tracks are still visible in many places, while only the foundations of the stamping battery buildings remain. At the height of the mining activity around the start of the 1900s, the Talisman mining operation included 50 stampers and buildings on both sides of the Waitawheta Gorge.
Geology
The whole basin is within the
Coromandel Volcanic Zone. The river runs mainly over
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[andesite
Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...](_blank)
and
dacite
Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...
intrusions,
lava flows
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
,
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
s and
ignimbrite
Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...
, then through some of the lake deposited Romanga Formation, before reaching the slightly older Waiwawa Subgroup, composed of rocks similar to the Kaimai, but often with mineral-rich
hydrothermal alteration
Metasomatism (from the Greek μετά ''metá'' "change" and σῶμα ''sôma'' "body") is the chemical alteration of a rock by hydrothermal and other fluids. It is the replacement of one rock by another of different mineralogical and chemical com ...
.
Waitawheta Quarry (east of the river, near the
bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
boundary) was, in 2008, producing over 100,000 tonnes a year of andesite for
aggregate.
In 2017 there were protests against New
Talisman
A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
Gold Mines' plans for mining on the Talisman site at Karangahake.
Wildlife
A 2015 survey, on the edge of the bush, found
Potamopyrgus,
Shortfin and
Longfin eels,
Common bully
The common bully (''Gobiomorphus cotidianus''), or toitoi (Māori), is a fish endemic to New Zealand, and is present throughout the country. There are three other bully species that can be confused with common bullies. There are few characterist ...
,
Banded kokopu,
Brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...
and
Koura, with a 134.2 'excellent'
MCI score. Just prior to that, efforts had been made to reduce goat numbers. A 1924 report said that a
shag
Shag, or Shagged, or Shagger, or Shagging, or Shags may refer to:
Animals
* Shag or cormorant, a bird family
** European shag, a specific species of the shag or cormorant family
** Great cormorant another species of the family
People Pseudonym
...
colony near the headwaters had been destroyed by sawmill workers, wanting to increase trout numbers.
Logging
The lower part of the valley was exploited for gold, the upper part for timber. From 1898 to 1928
the Waihi Gold Mining Co, then the
Kauri Timber Co, and, finally, the Waitawheta Sawmilling Co, from 1923, used a ,
gauge
Gauge ( or ) may refer to:
Measurement
* Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments
* Gauge (firearms)
* Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire
** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
(or ) tramway to the
East Coast Main Trunk
The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawerau ...
near Owharoa,
to remove 9 million feet (rather more than 2,000 trees) of mostly
kauri
''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...
logs. Milling ended in 1928 when nearly all the trees had been removed and the tramway was then dismantled. Since 2006, most of the 8 bridges over the river have been replaced by suspension bridges for walkers along the remaining 14 km upper part of the tramway.
Waitawheta
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 ...
was moved in 2004 to the site of the Waitawheta Sawmill,
just above the Toilet Bowl waterfall.
The 1913
Horahora to Waihi 50kV power line also passed through the valley. It was removed for scrap during
World War 2
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
See also
*
List of rivers of New Zealand
This is a list of all waterways named as rivers in New Zealand.
A
* Aan River
* Acheron River (Canterbury)
* Acheron River (Marlborough)
* Ada River
* Adams River
* Ahaura River
* Ahuriri River
* Ahuroa River
* Akatarawa River
* Ākiti ...
*
Karangahake Gorge
The Karangahake Gorge lies between the Coromandel and Kaimai ranges, at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. A sharply winding canyon, it was formed by the Ohinemuri River. State Highway 2 passes throug ...
References
{{reflist
Thames-Coromandel District
Rivers of Waikato
Rivers of New Zealand
Hauraki Gulf catchment