River
Whanganui River
290 km from source to mouth · New Zealand.
New ZealandFlows into Tasman Sea3rd longest in New Zealand
In numbers
Length
290km
Average flow
250m³/s
Basin
7,380km²
Drop
726m
from 726 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
290 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMount Tongariroat 726 m
- 37 kmWhakapapa Rivertributary
- 47 kmPungapunga Rivertributary
- 54 kmTaumarunui4,950 people
- 56 kmŌngaaruhe Rivertributary
- 101 kmŌhura Rivertributary
- 145 kmTāngarākau Rivertributary
- 150 kmWhangamōmona Rivertributary
- 181 kmManganuioteao Rivertributary
- 184 kmAotutao Stream Falls
- 283 kmWhanganui42,200 people
- 290 kmTasman Seaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Major river in the North Island of New Zealand
At the mouth it carries 247 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 10 seconds. It drops from 726 m to 0 m, 2.5 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 7,380 km², about the size of PR. 45,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- WhanganuiLargest city on its banks · 42,200 people
- Wanganui Airport (WAG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 4 km from the cityCar hire at PMR airport (Palmerston North)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe22 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From January to April and NovemberThe best months to visit
Whanganui River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Best months to visit: from January to April and November.
From about 130 m³/s in the lowest month to 360 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Whanganui River: the basin in numbers
7,114 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 45,000people live in the basin
- 7/km²people per km²
- 417maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,747mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 11.8°Caverage air temperature
- 34%protected areas
- 0.0km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 36% Forest
- 32% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Whanganui River: what you find on the way
- 6Weirs
- 40WaterfallsMatariki Falls, Lower Ohura Falls, Ohura Falls and 37 more
- 21RapidsNgahuinga and 20 more
- 1Canoe put-ins
- 8Boat rampsOhinepane Landing and 7 more
- 1Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.7 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Whanganui River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
19mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Aotutao Stream Fallskm 167
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Mountains at the source (19)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mount Tongariro0.2 km away1,978m
- Mount Ngauruhoe3.2 km away2,291m
- Rotopaunga2.7 km away1,856m
- Te Mari3.6 km away1,739m
- Pukekaikiore3.6 km away1,692m
- Tama6.0 km away1,623m
- Pukeonake5.9 km away1,225m
- Waihohonu12 km away987m
11 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Whanganui River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (10)
Also: Tāngarākau River, Whangamōmona River, Manganuioteao River, Ōngaaruhe River, Whakapapa River, Ōhura River, Pungapunga River, Kaiwhakauka Stream, Mangapapa Stream, Mangapurua Stream
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1940419) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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