Avon River / Ōtākaro
A river of the city, 29.2 km as the open map draws it, crossing 16 suburbs. Also recorded as “Ōtākaro” and “Avon River” and “Kerrs Reach”.
A live gauge sits on this water, Avon / Ōtākaro on /rivers, from Environment Canterbury every few minutes.
Where it runs
The centre of the water as OpenStreetMap draws it, centrelines, not banks, and not every reach carries water year-round. The faint outlines are suburbs.
Can you swim here
Avon River/Ōtākaro at Margaret Mahy Playground, the LAWA monitor that sits on its reach, LAWA keeps it on special status, graded unsuitable for swimming. 4 more monitored spots sit on its reach.
A water-quality risk grade, not a live verdict, after heavy rain any spot can turn. LAWA (Land Air Water Aotearoa) files the Canterbury sites for Environment Canterbury; its page is the one to check on the day.
The suburbs on its banks
Aranui · Avondale · Avonside · Bexley · Christchurch Central · Dallington · Fendalton · Ilam · Linwood · Merivale · New Brighton · Riccarton · Richmond · South New Brighton · Upper Riccarton · Wainoni
On the register along it
Listed places within about 200m of the line, near the water, not necessarily of it.
The reports along it
16,124 council reports pinned within 150 m of the line, most often Rubbish & dumping and Graffiti & vandalism, 13,578 with a photograph. A pin is where a reporter stood, not a claim about the place itself.
Dumped Rubbish
Graffiti on a traffic light pole or cabinet, or wa
Graffiti on a road, footpath or bridge
Rubbish and Bins - General
Trees - General
Park - General Request
Dumped Rubbish
Animal - Deceased
Animal - Deceased
Litter
Park - General RequestWalks that cross it
The square and its ring · The boulevard · The river bend · The bush and the great houses · The old estates · The old north road · The houses the avenues kept · The college and the homesteads · The factory garden · The school’s own register · The city’s stones · Belfries and chapels · The old university
Questions, answered briefly
29.2 km as mapped, 21 ways in the open map, crossing 16 suburbs.
Aranui, Avondale, Avonside, Bexley, and 12 more.
The map also records “Ōtākaro” and “Avon River” and “Kerrs Reach”, the page answers to all of them.
12 register places sit within 200m of its line, each opens its own record from this page.
The record behind this
The line is OpenStreetMap’s, every named way tagged river, stream, drain or canal inside the city boundary, merged by name (ODbL). A line says where a waterway runs, not how wide it is; the live gauges are instruments, kept on /rivers.
This page as markdown: /river/avon-river-otakaro.md · every waterway as data: /waterways.geojson · /waterways.json · every roll, counted: /geography.