Little River (New Zealand river)

For the town, see Little River, New Zealand.

The Little River is a tributary of Rakaia River, about 7 km (4.3 mi) long, in the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand's South Island. It rises on the 2,185 m (7,169 ft) Mount Hutt and enters the Rakaia 314 m (1,030 ft) above sea level.^[1]

Little River
Location
Country	New Zealand
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Mount Hutt
Mouth
• location	Rakaia River
• elevation	314 m (1,030 ft)
Length	7 km (4.3 mi)

Little River is also the name of a short river, roughly 2 km (1.2 mi), on Stewart Island,^[2] about a 2-hour walk from Oban.^[3]

Power station

MainPower’s Cleardale power station, was built in 2010. It takes up to 450 L (99 imp gal; 120 US gal)/second^[4] through a fibreglass penstock,^[5] 2.3 km (1.4 mi) up from,^[4] and 300 m (980 ft) above,^[6] the station, to drive a 1 MW (1,300 hp) pelton wheel.^[4] Power is generated at 400 volts and transformed to feed into Electricity Ashburton's 11 kV network.^[6] Some water from the tailrace is used to irrigate 208 ha (510 acres),^[7] with the remainder returned to the river.^[4] The power station and penstock have been landscaped^[8] and are now barely visible.^[9]