The Waimakariri — 'cold rushing water' — braids down from the Southern Alps through its great gorge and across the plains to the sea just north of Christchurch, a wide shingle river of grey glacial channels. The most accessible of the Canterbury salmon rivers, its lower braids and mouth fill with anglers for the summer chinook run, while the gorge holds good trout.

Wading: Braided glacial channels, cold pushy water, unstable shingle, salmon mouth crowds — serious care

Named alongside the Rakaia and Hurunui in a January North Canterbury regional report as carrying abundant mayflies, caddis, beetles and grasshoppers — regional guidance rather than river-specific evidence.