The Halswell River is a river in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It rises in the Port Hills

Port Hills

The Port Hills form the northern rim of the ancient Lyttelton volcano, separating the port of Lyttelton from the city of Christchurch in Canterbury, New Zealand...

 south of Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 and flows south into Lake Ellesmere

Lake Ellesmere

Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora is located in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is actually a broad, shallow lagoon located directly to the west of Banks Peninsula, separated from the Pacific Ocean by a long narrow sandy spit called Kaitorete Spit, or more correctly Kaitorete...

. Parts of the river originally had the Māori names of Huritini (meaning "many turns"), Te Tau Awa a Maka and Te Heru o Kahukura. The river was renamed for Edmund Storr Halswell, who was a member of the management committee of the Canterbury Association

Canterbury Association

The Canterbury Association was formed in order to establish a colony in what is now the Canterbury Region in the South Island of New Zealand.- Formation of the Association :...

and arrived in New Zealand in 1841.