Kurow
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- For the place of similar name in Poland see Kurów. For the video game character, see Kurow Kirishima.
Kurow is a town in the Waitaki Valley in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the Canterbury region, 55 kilometres inland from Oamaru. Kurow lies close to several major hydroelectric projects.
Examples of pre-European Māori cave paintings can be found a handful of kilometres from Kurow, close to the small settlement of Duntroon.
Some controversy exists as to the origin of the name. Local Māori and many current and former residents suggest that it is an Anglicised form of the name of the nearby mountain Te Kohurau, but some of the descendants of settlers from Europe (and especially from Poland) suggest that the name is after a Kurów in Poland. The latter is considered unlikely, however, due to the lack of either current or recorded historical Polish ancestry within the town.
The land around Kurow includes summerfruit orchards, and increasing amounts of Pinot Noir are being planted in the limestone soils.
For a number of decades, Kurow was the terminus of the Kurow Branch, a branch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network. The railway reached Kurow in 1881, terminating across the Waitaki River in Hakataramea, but in 1930, the line was cut back to Kurow. From 1928 until 1937, a line owned by the Public Works Department ran from Kurow to provide rail access to a hydroelectric project 6.4km west. The branch railway was closed in 1983 and not many traces remain in Kurow.
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