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Little River (New Zealand)

Coordinates: 43°26′55″S 171°36′10″E / 43.44861°S 171.60278°E / -43.44861; 171.60278
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Little River
Map
Location
CountryNew Zealand
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationMount Hutt
Mouth 
 • location
Rakaia River
 • elevation
314 m (1,030 ft)
Length7 km (4.3 mi)

The Little River is a tributary of Rakaia River, about 7 km (4.3 mi) long, in the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand's South Island. It rises on the 2,185 m (7,169 ft) Mount Hutt and enters the Rakaia 314 m (1,030 ft) above sea level.[1]

Little River is also the name of a short river, roughly 2 km (1.2 mi), on Stewart Island,[2] about a 2-hour walk from Oban.[3]

Wairewa marae, a marae (tribal meeting ground) of Ngāi Tahu and its Wairewa Rūnanga branch, is located at Little River.[4] It includes Te Mako wharenui (meeting house).[5]

Power station

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MainPower’s Cleardale power station, was built in 2010. It takes up to 450 L (99 imp gal; 120 US gal)/second[6] through a fibreglass penstock,[7] 2.3 km (1.4 mi) up from,[6] and 300 m (980 ft) above,[8] the station, to drive a 1 mW (1.3×10−6 hp) pelton wheel.[6] Power is generated at 400 volts and transformed to feed into Electricity Ashburton's 11 kV network.[8] Some water from the tailrace is used to irrigate 208 ha (510 acres),[9] with the remainder returned to the river.[6] The power station and penstock have been landscaped[10] and are now barely visible.[11]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Little River, Canterbury". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Little River, Southland". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Rakiura day walks". www.doc.govt.nz. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Te Kāhui Māngai directory". tkm.govt.nz. Te Puni Kōkiri.
  5. ^ "Māori Maps". maorimaps.com. Te Potiki National Trust.
  6. ^ a b c d "Hydro Generation". www.mainpower.co.nz. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  7. ^ "Cleardale Power Station". Ashburtononline.co.nz.
  8. ^ a b "PBA News - PBA assists with Cleardale Hydro Project" (PDF). 3 May 2011.
  9. ^ "Going green and staying out of the red". Stuff. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Restoration and Amenity Planting at Cleardale". NZ Environmental. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Google Maps". Retrieved 1 April 2018.
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43°26′55″S 171°36′10″E / 43.44861°S 171.60278°E / -43.44861; 171.60278