Motu River

Last updated

Motu Falls, downstream from Motu village Motu Falls.jpg
Motu Falls, downstream from Motu village

Motu River is a major waterway in the eastern portion of the North Island of New Zealand. It rises on the slopes of Maungahaumi on the southern side of the Raukumara Range south of Opotiki, heads east and cuts its way through the range, where its important tributaries merge with it, and empties into the Bay of Plenty to the north.

The Māori name Mōtu means cut off, isolated. This refers to the district around the headwaters, which since ancient times has been considered to be in the middle of nowhere because of the thickness of the forests which surrounded it.

The river passes through mostly uninhabited hill country, very steep and still thickly covered in rainforest. It is much used for adventure tourism (jet-boating and white-water rafting). The first modern traverse of the river, from the Motu Falls to its mouth, was in 1920 by the Fisher brothers and S. Thorburn, and this was re-enacted in 2013 by Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald in series 2 of the "First Crossings" TV series.

A mid-20th century proposal to dam the river for hydroelectricity was rejected. [1]

Coordinates: 37°51′S177°35′E / 37.850°S 177.583°E / -37.850; 177.583

Related Research Articles

Geography of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. Ethiopia has a high central plateau that varies from 1,290 to 3,000 m above sea level, with the highest mountain reaching 4,533 m (14,872 ft).

Geography of South Africa geography of South Africa

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than 2,850 kilometres from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although most of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography. The total land area is 1,220,813 km2 (471,359 sq mi). It has the 23rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,535,538 km2 (592,875 sq mi).

Gulf of Saint Lawrence The outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the Saint Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about 226,000 square kilometres (87,000 sq mi) and containing about 34,500 cubic kilometres (8,300 cu mi) of water, which results in an average depth of 152 metres (499 ft).

Java Sea shallow sea between Java and Kalimantan, in Indonesia

The Java Sea is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South China Sea. It is a part of the western Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Route 177 (US-177) is a spur of U.S. Route 77. It currently runs for 233 miles (375 km) from South Haven, Kansas at US-81 to Madill, Oklahoma at US-70. It passes through the states of Kansas and Oklahoma.

Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea.

Maribyrnong River Trail

The Maribyrnong River Trail is a shared use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Maribyrnong River through the north western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Battle of the Sambre (1918) battle

The Second Battle of the Sambre (which included the Second Battle of Guise and the Battle of Thiérache was part of the final European Allied offensives of World War I.

Orara River, a perennial stream of the Clarence River catchment, is located in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, Australia.

The Lerderderg Gorge is in Victoria, Australia. The Lerderderg River which emerges from the Great Dividing Range has cut a deep gorge as it winds toward the southern plains.

State Highway 2 (New Zealand) Road in New Zealand

State Highway 2 runs north–south through eastern parts of the North Island of New Zealand from the outskirts of Auckland to Wellington. It runs via Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, and Napier and Hastings in Hawke's Bay. It is the second-longest highway in the North Island, after State Highway 1, which runs the length of both of the country's main islands.

Reb River is a river of north-central Ethiopia which empties into Lake Tana at 12°2′N37°35′E. The river originates on the slopes of Mount Guna, and flows west through Kemekem woreda. It has no significant tributaries.

Emigrant Trail in Wyoming

The path followed by the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon Trail spans 400 miles (640 km) through the U.S. state of Wyoming. The trail entered from Nebraska on the eastern border of the state near the present day town of Torrington and exited on the western border near the towns of Cokeville and Afton. An estimated 350,000 to 400,000 settlers traveled on the trail through Wyoming between 1841 and 1868. All three trails follow the same path through most of the state. The Mormon Trail splits at Fort Bridger and enters Utah, while the Oregon and California Trails continue to Idaho.

US Highway 2 (US 2) is a component of the United States Numbered Highway System that connects Everett, Washington, to the Upper Peninsula (UP) of the US state of Michigan, with a separate segment that runs from Rouses Point, New York, to Houlton, Maine. In Michigan, the highway runs through the UP in two segments as a part of the state trunkline highway system, entering the state at Ironwood and ending at St. Ignace; in between, US 2 briefly traverses the state of Wisconsin. As one of the major transportation arteries in the UP, US 2 is a major conduit for traffic through the state and neighboring northern Midwest states. Two sections of the roadway are included as part of the Great Lakes Circle Tours, and other segments are listed as state-designated Pure Michigan Byways. There are several memorial highway designations and historic bridges along US 2 that date to the 1910s and 1920s. The highway runs through rural sections of the UP, passing through two national and two state forests in the process.

Dundee, New South Wales Suburb in New South Wales, Australia

Dundee is a rural locality about 40 kilometres north of Glen Innes on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the New England Highway at the Severn River in Severn parish, Gough County, New South Wales. The elevation is 985 metres.

Mount Arowhana lies in the Raukumara Range in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Part of the backbone of the range, which forms part of a line of mountains extending across much of the North Island, 1440 metre (4724 ft) Arowhana is second only to Mount Hikurangi in terms of height within the Raukumara Range.

Maungahaumi is a mountain in the Raukumara Range in the northeast of New Zealand's North Island.

Electoral district of West Bourke former electoral district of Victoria

West Bourke was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria from 1856 to 1904.

Tōrere, previously known as Torere, is a small settlement in the Ōpōtiki District of the Bay of Plenty Region on New Zealand's North Island. It is the ancestral home of the Ngāitai people.

Motu is a rural community in the Gisborne District of New Zealand's North Island. It is located north of Matawai and State Highway 2. The community is centred around Motu River and Motu Falls.

References

  1. GW Gray, 1954. An Account of the Motu River Hydro Investigations. Whakatane Historical Society Newsletter 15/2:140-142