Clutha River

The Maori name for the Clutha was Mata-au, meaning 'surface current', a reference to the river's endless swirling eddies. The name Clutha came from Scottish emigrants in 1846 when they were preparing to settle in Otago. The river has the largest catchment in New Zealand (8,480 sq. miles), and the greatest volume of water. Plus it is the largest river in the South Island, being 150 miles from the lakes to the sea and 210 miles from its headwaters to the sea. It's mighty in every way. Towns sit alongside the Clutha River or on the lakes drained by it and include: Queenstown, Wanaka, Cromwell, Alexandra, Roxburgh, and Balclutha. The Clutha and its tributaries were a rich source of gold. Gabriel Read discovered gold at the Tuapeka in 1861, but the greatest rush was in 1862 when Hartley and Reilly made their discovery at the Dunstan, a little below the junction of the Kawarau and the Clutha. Towards the close of the century the dredging boom began and in 1900 – the peak year – there were 187 dredges at work. Nowadays there's no gold to pan, but swimming in parts of the Clutha make for some golden summer memories.