The Whau River is an estuarial arm of the southwestern Waitemata Harbour (rather than a river) within the Auckland metropolitan area in New Zealand. It flows north for 5.7 kilometres from its origin at the confluence of the Avondale Stream and Whau Stream to its mouth between the Te Atatu peninsula and the long, thin Rosebank Peninsula in Avondale. It is 800 metres at its widest and 400 metres wide at its mouth.
The estuary extends past the suburbs of Glendene and Kelston, between Auckland City to the east and Waitakere City to the west. It has one small estuarial tributary arm, the Wairau Creek in the southwest. The tide flows up the Wairau Creek as far as Sabulite Road in Kelston, and up the Rewarewa Creek to Clark Street and Wolverton Road in New Lynn. The area at the mouth of the estuary is protected as the Motu Manawa (Pollen Island) Marine Reserve.
The Whau River is named after a native tree, the whau (Entelea arborescens).
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.
There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed”
—Charles Simic (b. 1938)