How the Rivers Run....

[Brent George]

For those Surveyors who may be just starting to undertake definitions in the Canterbury High Country (and other similar environments...) - you may want to have a look at this amazing video in the news link:- Stuff - 21-Feb-2018

This should provide a sobering, real-life example of how these high country rivers transport the mountains (in pieces) onto the plains below.... 

The seemingly empty, benign creek beds run down the steeper banks.  Their incised form with boulder sidewalls and rock bases look peculiar during 'normal' periods (that is, outside of severe rain events).  To a townie surveyor they would look dry, but the locals would know that they are the transport routes taking the mountains to the sea....

[Alex Liggett]

It also raises the interesting question of whether several hectares of bare, semi-mobile shingle constitutes a qualifying water body for the purposes of Part 4A of the Conservation Act, something that has exercised the minds of a number of surveyors in the area over the course of the High Country Tenure Review. I have my own view on the subject, which I outlined in the QWB report for Glenfalloch Station (further up the road in the video), but until we get formal guidance from DOC and LINZ, YMMV.