The Ashley River (; officially Ashley River / Rakahuri) is in the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

region of New Zealand. It flows generally southeastwards for before entering the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

Waikuku Beach Waikuku Beach is a small settlement on the coast of the Canterbury Region, Canterbury region of New Zealand, about east of the settlement of Waikuku. The sandy beach is popular with surfers and swimmers, and the large estuary of the Ashley Ri ...

Pegasus Bay Pegasus Bay, earlier known as Cook's Mistake, is a bay on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, to the north of Banks Peninsula. Toponymy Pegasus Bay takes its name from the brig ''Pegasus'', a sealing ship that was sailing from H ...

north of

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. The town of

Rangiora Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury Region, Canterbury, New Zealand. It is north of Christchurch, and is part of the Christchurch metropolitan area. With an estimated population of Rangiora is the ...

is close to the south bank of the Ashley River. The river's official name was changed from Ashley River to the

dual name Dual naming is the adoption of an official place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are political. Some ...

Ashley River / Rakahuri by the

Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 is an act of parliament passed in New Zealand relating to Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. The act's purpose is to settle all of the tribe's claims under the Treaty of Wa ...

. Though the lower reaches of the river are braided, part of the upper river flows through a canyon known as the Ashley Gorge. The river emanates from mountains in the west Lees Valley adjacent to Island Hills station and exits the hills at a gorge near Oxford township. It has tributaries of Duck Creek in this valley and is an accumulator of watershed between Lees Valley and Oxford township. Behind Waikuku Beach is one of the largest, least modified estuaries in New Zealand. It is abundant in bird life, including the

wrybill The wrybill or (in Māori language, Māori) ngutuparore (''Anarhynchus frontalis'') is a species of plover Endemic (ecology), endemic to New Zealand. It is the only species of bird in the world with a beak that is bent sideways in one direction, ...

(''Anarhynchus frontalis'') and

Black stilt The black stilt (''Himantopus novaezelandiae'') or kakī (Māori language, Māori) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive ...

(''Himantopus novaezelandiae''). Many migratory birds over-winter here. Surveys from 2000 to 2015, after work to clear weeds and pests, showed significant increases in

banded dotterel The double-banded plover (''Anarhynchus 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 bree ...

, wrybill,

black-fronted tern The black-fronted tern (''Chlidonias albostriatus''), sea martin, ploughboy, or tarapiroe Māori language, (Māori), is a medium-small tern endemic to New Zealand. Black-fronted terns can be found in coastal habitats from the southern tip of th ...

, and

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

, but

black-billed gull The black-billed gull (''Chroicocephalus bulleri''), also called Buller's gull or ( Māori), is a Near Threatened species of gull in the family Laridae. This gull is found only in New Zealand, its ancestors having arrived from Australia arou ...

spur-winged plover The spur-winged lapwing or spur-winged plover (''Vanellus spinosus'') is a lapwing species, one of a group of largish waders in the family Charadriidae. Taxonomy The spur-winged lapwing was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturali ...

and southern black-backed gull didn't change significantly.

Floods

In February 1868, June 1905 and May 1923 flooding from this river extended as far as

Kaiapoi Kaiapoi is a town in the Waimakariri District of the Canterbury, New Zealand, Canterbury region, in the South Island of New Zealand. The town is located approximately 17 kilometres north of central Christchurch, close to the mouth of the Waimak ...

. Major floods also occurred in March 1902, February 1936, March 1941, February 1945, January 1953, December 1993 and 2013. of stopbanks have been built from the 1930s and have contained the floods since 1953, being enlarged in 1976 and 2018. On the north bank they extend from the railway bridge to the coast and on the south bank to Mount Thomas Road.

Bridges

Cones Road Bridge

The Cones Road Bridge is located at and connects

Ashley Ashley is a place name derived from the Old English words '' æsċ'' (“ash”) and '' lēah'' (“meadow”). It may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ashley (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name ...

and Loburn. It is a 10-span, long bridge, opened in 2015, replacing a 24-span, 1912 bridge, after closure by floods in 2013. It is built of hollow-core concrete beams and has 2 road lanes, 2 cycleways and a footpath. The original bridge was built in 1897. Railway_bridge_over_Ashley_River

Railway Bridge

The bridge opened with the Rangiora to Ashley section of the Northern Railway on 17 April 1875. It was long and built of timber, with 54 spans. In April 1951 a pier and two iron girders were washed away in a flood. It was replaced by a bridge to the east on 18 December 1961.

Main North Road Bridge

The first bridge was completed in 1866. It was initially a toll bridge, but by 1867 had been bought by the Provincial Council. After floods, it was lengthened in 1868. It was rebuilt downstream and long by wide, on 25 reinforced concrete spans, opening in August 1937, after flood damage in 1936. Floods had also closed it in 1870, It is now part of

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

and was repaired and strengthened in 2019.

References

External links

Photos -
pre 1961 railway bridge

pre 1936 road bridge

1936 North Rd bridge being built

1937 photos of old and new bridge
* Cones Rd bridge in

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Owens Thompson, Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central Uni ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Flood in August 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley River Rakahuri Rivers of the Canterbury Region Waimakariri District Rivers of New Zealand Important Bird Areas of New Zealand