Taieri River
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The Taieri River is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand, and is located in Otago in the country's South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw ranges, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pillar range before turning southeast, reaching the sea 30 km south of Dunedin.
The upper reaches of the Taieri meander in a series of convoluted loops across a floodplain near Paerau before running through two small hydroelectric power stations before Patearoa and the Maniototo. The river then arcs through almost 180 degrees, entering a broad glacial valley known as the Strath-Taieri, surrounded by rugged hill ranges. The river itself has cut a steep-sided gorge — the Taieri Gorge. The gorge is well known for the Taieri Gorge Railway, which follows a route into Central Otago up through the gorge. In its lower reaches, there is a broad floodplain (the Taieri Plains) containing much of Otago's most fertile farmland, before it flows through the lower Taieri Gorge to the Pacific Ocean at Taieri Mouth. Taieri Island lies in the Pacific Ocean several hundred metres from the mouth of the river.
The length of the river is 200 km, of which the last 20 km are navigable. Towns along the river include Middlemarch, Outram, Mosgiel, Henley and Taieri Mouth. Its major tributary is the Waipori River, which meets the Taieri near Henley on the Taieri Plains.
The name Taieri is thought to come from the Māori word taiari meaning "spring tide".
