The Waitaha River is a river of the West Coast 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...

's 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...

. It flows northwest from the Bloomfield Range of 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...

, some 10 kilometres north of Mount Whitcombe

Mount Whitcombe

Mount Whitcombe is a large mountain, 1,425 m, standing just north of Mount Perseverance and west of Mount Arrowsmith at the west side of Evans Piedmont Glacier in Victoria Land. Mapped in 1957 by the New Zealand Northern Survey Party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1956-58...

, and reaches 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...

 15 kilometres southwest of Ross

Ross, New Zealand

Ross is a small town located on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.It lies 27 kilometres south-west of Hokitika and 46 kilometres north-east of Harihari...

.

The Waitaha River is renowned for gold, both alluvial and from glacial deposition. Coarse gold has been dredged downstream of Morgans Gorge where the river opens into the flats. Several gold mining operations continue in the area today.