Southland region

For Southland, the Longwoods Range experiences very high rainfall. An automatic raingauge in the Pourakino Valley (just outside of the Coastal Longwoods WRZ boundary) generally experiences twice the amount of rainfall as other sites in Southland. The Longwoods Range often intercepts the coastal south-westerly weather patterns that predominantly occur in coastal Southland. The Coastal Longwoods area has a long history including once being a thriving gold mining region. A number of small streams flowing from the Longwoods Range were diverted into or intercepted by water races that fed into storage reservoirs. From these reservoirs, the required head of pressure needed to operate high pressured water hoses in the goldfields below could be obtained. The largest catchment within the Coastal Longwoods surface water zone is the Waimeamea River, which originates on the south-west flanks of the Longwoods Range, draining native forest before discharging to the coast near Orepuki. The Ourawera Stream is an important whitebait fishery to locals and still has small scale gold mining activities occurring in its reaches. Environment Southland has no permanent water level stations in the Coastal Longwoods surface water zone. However, flow gaugings are performed periodically to help gain an understanding of low flows of various streams within this zone. At present, the Coastal Longwoods surface water zone has very low levels of surface water allocated from its streams. This is due to factors such as the high rainfall received in the catchments of the area, the relatively low percentage of farmed land and the lack of major industry.