The Hokitika River is in the West Coast

West Coast, New Zealand

The West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country. It is made up of three districts: Buller, Grey and Westland...

 of the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 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 is about 64 kilometres (39.8 mi) long, beginning in the Southern Alps

Southern Alps

The Southern Alps is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the island's western side...

 and flowing into the Tasman Sea

Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...

 next to the town of Hokitika. The Hokitika River, and its eastern tributary

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

, the Kokatahi River

Kokatahi River

The Kokatahi River is a river of the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. A major tributary of the Hokitika River, it flows northwest from its origins on the northern slopes of Mount Ambrose, reaching the Hokitika River 12 kilometres from the latter's mouth at Hokitika. The two rivers...

, have formed the Kowhitirangi-Kokatahi

Kokatahi

Kokatahi is a locality on the West Coast of New Zealand. Hokitika is about 15 km to the north-west. The Kokatahi River flows through the area and into the Hokitika River to the north-west....

 alluvial plain

Alluvial plain

An alluvial plain is a relatively flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms...

; a fertile

Fertile

The term fertile describes a condition whereby organisms are able to produce physically healthy offspring.Fertile may also refer to:...

 and productive land extensively used for dairy farming

Dairy farming

Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...

. The entrance to the Hokitika River was once used as a harbour during the West Coast's gold rush

Gold rush

A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

; however, the sand bar at the river mouth created a treacherous and often fatal obstacle - resulting in many shipwrecks

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

. After the gold-rush subsided, the use of the river as a harbour declined and is now no longer used.