Waimakariri River
A river of the city, 160.8 km as the open map draws it, crossing 5 suburbs. Also recorded as “Waimakariri”.
A live gauge sits on this water, Waimakariri 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
Waimakariri River Between Highway Bridges, the LAWA monitor that sits on its reach, LAWA keeps it on special status, graded unsuitable for swimming. 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
Belfast · Brooklands · Coutts Island · Kainga · McLeans Island
The reports along it
121 council reports pinned within 150 m of the line, most often Rubbish & dumping and Graffiti & vandalism, 86 with a photograph. A pin is where a reporter stood, not a claim about the place itself.
Facility - General Request
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Park - General Request
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Dumped Rubbish
Park - General RequestQuestions, answered briefly
160.8 km as mapped, 2 ways in the open map, crossing 5 suburbs.
Belfast, Brooklands, Coutts Island, Kainga, and 1 more.
The map also records “Waimakariri”, the page answers to all of them.
It’s the centreline, the middle of the water as mapped on OpenStreetMap, not its banks. A line says where it runs, not how wide it is or whether it carries water today.
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/waimakariri-river.md · every waterway as data: /waterways.geojson · /waterways.json · every roll, counted: /geography.