Waipori River
The Waipori River is located about 64 km to the west of Dunedin,
rising in the Lammerlaw Mountains. After winding through a course
of about 24 km the River emerges into a valley 1.5 km wide and 27
km long, with a drop of only 30-metres.
The valley outlet is a narrow gorge which sharply drops 165-metres
over only 4 km. The Waipori River joins the Taieri River near
Henley, 30 km southwest of Dunedin.
It is this natural river flow, which rushes down the steep slopes
of mountain ranges, roams through a relatively level plateau,
before rushing through a rocky gorge, which makes this natural
resource the ideal setting for generating hydro-electricity.
The name Waipori means “Dark Water” in Maori. This is
appropriate because the water is often muddy as it is stained by
the peat in the swamps at the head of the river. However, when I
first translated from the current spelling the name translated as
'Water People', hence the name of this cache.
Hydro-Power
Following the first steps towards generating electricity from the
Waipori River in May 1900, on 27th April 1907 the Waipori
Hydro-Electric Power Station was commissioned.
The water was diverted out of the Waipori River by a 3-metre timber
crib dam and conveyed for about 2.7 km in a wooden flume,
constructed of locally sourced timber, 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep.
The power station contained two 1,000kW 2400 volt three phase
generators driven by Pelton Wheels, operating under a head of
approximately 206-metres.
The electricity generated was transmitted to the Halfway Bush
Substation via two 33kV lines and two 3.3kV lines were constructed
to distribute power throughout the city.
As a result of progressive development, the Waipori Hydro Scheme
today consists of four generation stations. Waipori 1A delivers 10
MW, and Waipori 2A, 3 and 4 deliver 58 MW, 7.6 MW and 8 MW
respectively.
The scheme has a total average annual output of 192 GWh.
The Cache
You are looking for a small-medium sized, painted snaplock
container containing some small trading items. The cache is located
on some tracks branching off the Waipori Falls picnic area.
If you're not going into the bush for other caches why not travel
further up the 'Driveway' (as the locals call it) and check out the
power stations, Waipori Falls and Lake Mahinerangi? It is a
beautiful area!