Waimakariri › Waimak below Otarama

Waimakariri River Below Otarama

100.0m³/s

Sat, 17 Oct, 11:00 pm · 32 min ago

Steady

Good ClearingClearing: 2.8 d since the last peak; glacial, milky in warm weather

Good now, and holding · base flow 63.4 m³/s stays above 40

3 h change: +0.60 m³/s
Steady for: 17 h
7-day peak: 544
Thu, 15 Oct, 6:30 am
30-day median: 82.0
30-day range: 58.9 – 543
Highest gauged: 479 m³/s
Stage: 1.95 m
Recession: halves in 20 h
fitted to this recession, toward 63.4

Flow

m³/s · New Zealand time

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Recent rises

detected from hourly means

Peak	From	To	Rise	Settled
Thu, 15 Oct, 5:00 am	63.4	526	8.3×	16 h
Sun, 27 Sept, 7:00 pm	74.1	121	1.6×	2 d
Sun, 20 Sept, 12:00 pm	89.5	147	1.6×	23 h

Along the Waimakariri

Upstream

Waimakariri Esk

137 m³/s

Downstream

Waimakariri Gorge

1.71 m

JBNZ river guide

Waimakariri River, sections that cite this gauge are marked

Sections

Waimakariri River

Sea to the SH1 bridge No uplifting

6 km

SH1 bridge to Woodstock Class 1

Shingle, braided · 69 km · 4.4 m/km

Launch Gorge bridge; JBNZ SH1 ramp; Intake Road; West Melton

Commercial operator, heavy boat traffic

Woodstock to the Poulter Class 1

Rocks, rapids, gorgy; the benches between the Esk and the Poulter can be class 3 · 36 km · 4.6 m/km

Launch Woodstock, SH72

Commercial operator, heavy boat traffic

Poulter confluence to Bealey bridge Class 3 Closed April to June

Braided, shingle · 32 km · 5.3 m/km

Launch Mt White bridge

Can be soft shingle to launch into

From the Jet Boating New Zealand Canterbury river information sheet of July 2024, transcribed by hand on 17 October 2026. Uplifting is whether the 5-knot limit is lifted for the section. JBNZ can update the sheet at any time; flo checked it 4.9 h ago. Open the PDF.

Weather

at Waimak below Otarama · Open-Meteo

10pm

Overcast

7.9°

–

3 SE

1am

Fog

7.4°

–

2 N

4am

Fog

6.4°

–

3 NW

7am

Fog

6.2°

–

4 NW

10am

Clear

15.6°

–

3 N

1pm

Clear

18.2°

–

7 SE

4pm

Partly cloudy

18.0°

–

7 SE

7pm

Clear

15.2°

–

4 E

10pm

Clear

11.6°

–

7 NW

1am

Fog

9.6°

–

8 NW

4am

Fog

6.9°

–

11 NW

7am

Fog

6.0°

–

11 NW

Sat Overcast 7.9°/ 7.7° dry

Sun Fog 18.2°/ 5.9° dry

Mon Fog 18.7°/ 6.0° dry

Tue Drizzle 19.7°/ 7.9° 0.3 mm

Waimakariri Gorge - WoodstockOpen live cam ↗

Outdoor Access· 2.2 km from the Waimak below Otarama gauge · subscription