Rangitata River 3.46

5 star(s) from 1 votes
Christchurch,
New Zealand

About Rangitata River

Rangitata River Rangitata River is one of the popular place listed under River in Christchurch ,

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The Rangitata River is one of the braided rivers that helped form the Canterbury Plains in southern New Zealand. It flows southeast for 120km from the Southern Alps, entering the Pacific Ocean 30km northeast of Timaru. The river has a catchment area of 1773km2, and a mean annual flow of 95m3/s at Klondyke.The Māori name "Rangitata" (Rakitata) has been variously translated as "day of lowering clouds", "close sky", and "the side of the sky".The river formed the Rangitata Valley, in the center of the Southern Alps, and the on-location photography of the Edoras set from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Return of the King was filmed in this valley, on and around Mount Sunday. Several remote sheep stations are located near Mount Sunday. These include Mesopotamia, Mt Potts, and Erewhon. Erewhon was named by Samuel Butler who was the first white settler to live at the Mesopotamia sheep station. Erewhon is also the name of a novel written by Butler anonymously in 1872.Before the river enters the Canterbury Plains, part of it is diverted to the Rangitata Diversion Race (RDR) for irrigation and hydroelectric generation. The RDR was built between 2 April 1937 and 1944, and supplies water to the Montalto and Highbank schemes before joining the Rakaia River. The entry point has New Zealand's first acoustic fish fence, keeping salmon smolt in the river and preventing them ending up on farmland.

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