Ōpāwaho / Heathcote River
A stream of the city, 30.7 km as the open map draws it, crossing 16 suburbs. Also recorded as “Heathcote River” and “Ōpāwaho”.
A live gauge sits on this water, Heathcote / Ōpāwaho 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-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai Beachville Road Jetty, the LAWA monitor that sits on its reach, LAWA’s long-term grade for it is very low risk. 2 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
Aidanfield · Beckenham · Cashmere · Ferrymead · Hillmorton · Hillsborough · Hoon Hay · Huntsbury · Opawa · Saint Martins · Somerfield · Spreydon · Sydenham · Waltham · Wigram · Woolston
On the register along it
Listed places within about 200m of the line, near the water, not necessarily of it.
The reports along it
26,488 council reports pinned within 150 m of the line, most often Graffiti & vandalism and Rubbish & dumping, 21,160 with a photograph. A pin is where a reporter stood, not a claim about the place itself.
Dumped Rubbish
Graffiti on a bus stop or public toilet
Pavement - Damaged
Water Leak
Graffiti on a playground or in a park
Park - General Request
Water Fountain
Water Leak
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Fallen TreeWalks that cross it
Questions, answered briefly
30.7 km as mapped, 41 ways in the open map, crossing 16 suburbs.
Aidanfield, Beckenham, Cashmere, Ferrymead, and 12 more.
The map also records “Heathcote River” and “Ōpāwaho”, 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/opawaho-heathcote-river.md · every waterway as data: /waterways.geojson · /waterways.json · every roll, counted: /geography.