The Ashley River (Māori: Rakahuri) is located in Canterbury Region of New Zealand. It flows generally southeastwards for 65 kilometres before entering the Pacific Ocean at Waikuku Beach, Pegasus Bay north of Christchurch. The town of Rangiora is close to the south bank of the Ashley River. The river's official name was changed from Ashley River to the dual name Ashley River / Rakahuri by the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998.
Though the lower reaches of the river are braided, part of the upper river flows through a canyon known as the Ashley Gorge.
The river emanates from mountains in the west Lees Valley adjacent to Island Hills station and exits the hills at a gorge near Oxford township. It has tributaries of Duck Creek in this valley and is an accumulator of watershed between Lees Valley and Oxford township.
Behind Waikuku Beach is one of the largest, least modified estuaries in New Zealand. It is abundant in bird life, including the wrybill (Anarhynchus frontalis) and Black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae). Many migratory birds over-winter here.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“There are books so alive that you’re always afraid that while you weren’t reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”
—Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941)