The Hawea is a marvellous backyard run near Wānaka that you can enjoy in many different ways. With road access at three main points, a hiking/biking track along its length, a park&play wave plus a slalom course, you’re spoilt for choice!

Although the river is ‘only grade II’, the banks are lined with strainers. This river is best for people who are competent at grade II paddling, and can stay in their boat. If you’re still tipping out occasionally there are much safer places to develop your skills.

Gauge & flows

Hawea River at Camp Hill Bridge

Because the Hawea is dam-controlled, we’ll talk about the flow first. You can have fun at almost any flow, but the character does change a fair bit!

Flow in cumecs	River character
10-15	The minimum flow that must be maintained by the hydro dam. Especially in summer, this is the most common flow. Still good fun in a packraft. You might scrape the bottom in a few places. Falling out in the top hole of “The Wave” will probably mean you hit the concrete bottom.
15-50	Getting more interesting. The features start to get more interesting, with eddies that are worth catching and practicsing on. Packrafts can still surf ‘The Wave’ with good technique, but its getting trickier.
70-80	A really nice flow. ‘The Wave’ features are really on for kayakers and considered grade III. Most packrafts don’t have the hull speed to surf at these flows.
100-200	Its mostly just a fast, bouncy ride, with fewer eddies and smoothed out features. Totally fine for packrafts, but definitely take a look at The Wave before you run it.

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River access points

These are described from top to bottom.

The dam

The top put in (just beneath the Dam) is best accessed from the main road (river right) side. Pull into the petrol station, then drive north to where there is a vehicle track through an unlocked gate. (leave the gate as you find it – normally closed!) You can drive almost the whole way to the water.

The Wave / Camp Hill Rd Bridge

There’s a large carpark on the true left, downstream of the bridge.

The Slalom Course / Hawea swingbridge

From just north of the Albert Town Bridge over the Clutha, a dirt road lead east towards the river. There’s a range of dirt tracks, cycleways and campsites at the end of the river – watch out for bikers and campers!

Follow your nose to the river – the slalom course is just downstream of the bike/foot swingbridge. There’s a great takeout with a nice eddy and lots of parking space.

The Central Otago Whitewater club runs canoe slalom events and training here.

There are several other spots to take out below this, but this is regarded as the ‘normal’ takeout for the run.

Shuttle by bike/foot: The Hawea River Track

The Hawea River track is part of Te Araroa, and is an easy gravel cycle or walking path.

Between the Slalom Course / Swingbridge and The Dam, is about 10km/2hrs walking.

Nearby, the Albert Town shops or Lake Hawea Store sell icecreams, coffee, snacks, takeaways and beer..

Hawea River (II)

The greatest hazard on the Hawea are the Willows trees that create strainers at the water’s edge.

Depending on the flow, there can be quite long sections where there are no safe places to eddy out, (or swim to in the event of a capsize.) The whitewater is at the easy end of the spectrum, but if you tipped out and couldn’t self/buddy rescue, you could be in for quite a long swim.

At low flows, a swim also poses foot-entrapment hazard – you’ll be hitting the bottom and moving fast.

At high flows, you’ll be moving very fast.

So even though the river is “only grade II” it probably deserves more respect than many grade II rivers because of the hazards. Its a river for people competent at grade II paddling. If you’re still learning and occaisonally tipping out – this probably isn’t a good river for you.

Upper section – Dam to The Wave.

This section is class I/II with a couple of small rapid and minor boulder gardens. Some of these can make fun ‘mini wave’ surfing features for packrafts at low to mid flows.

There’s large warning signs on the river bank as you approach the wave, and its easy to get out and portage on river left via the bike track.

The Wave to the Slalom Course/Swingbridge

Below the Wave there are a few more distinct features than in the upper section, so if you only have time for a shorter paddle, this is the more interesting section.

There are a number of sweeping bends which push you toward strainer hazards. Visually confirm there is a clear path before committing to the rapid. The strainers are generally easy to avoid with correct technique, but passively floating will mean you’ll end up in the trees, in a potentially life-threatening situation.

In the lower part of the river, there are several houses and private properties which come to the waters’ edge. Respect private property by continuing downstream and refrain from playing with the deckchairs, rope swings and other curiosities..

After the swingbridge, take out on the right at the Slalom course.

There are places to take out on river right after the Slalom course, but don’t go too far because you’ll end up in the Clutha which is NZ’s largest river by volume.

The Hawea White water park (II/III)

At residual flow (10-15 cumecs) the two features are simple class II drops.

At higher flows, the top feature becomes a retentive hole, and the bottom one a large surf wave. Both reach grade III.

At most flows, squaring up to the feature and paddling assertively and continuously down the middle is all you need to do. Scouting is wise for your first trip – It’s easy to eddy out and portage on the true left (or do laps of the features) via the Hawea walking track.

When the wave is on, watch out for surfers, kayakers! As you approch, look for paddles or heads bobbing above the horizon line. Make sure you wait your turn. Its usually easy to either eddy out and get eye contact with whomever is surfing. It is very poor form (and can be dangerous) to paddle down onto someone who is surfing a feature.

Learn more at the Central Otago Whitewater page about the Hawea Whitewater park.

Gallery

Gallery photos show a trip at 10 cumecs, and another at 40 cumecs.