The river that runs through it is the Aparima. Southland has three big rivers. The most western is the Waiau; it flows from Lake Te Anau and then into Manapouri and then into Foveaux Strait at Te Waewae Bay. It briefly appeared in the first of the Lord of the Rings movies. The eastern-most Oreti River flows from the Thomson Mountains near the Mavora lakes, through Lumsden and Winton and eventually into Foveaux Strait at Oreti Beach. In between the Oreti and Waiau, the Aparima River flows from the Takitimu Mountains and into Foveaux Strait at Riverton (where, just for eN-Zed-trivia fans, it’s briefly renamed Jacob’s River). This means all the goody-nutrients that flow down these three rivers provide the food for the world-famous-in-eN-Zed Bluff oysters.
Every morning and afternoon of my unhappy high school years our school bus crossed the Aparima River at the Wrey’s Bush bridge. It was bloody scary crossing that rickety wooden Wrey’s Bush bridge on the few days that the Aparima was ‘up’, which meant muddy-brown, angry and very in-flood. But come the summer that same Aparima River became our best friend for the several swimming holes that we used in lieu of air conditioning, which hadn’t been invented yet because real hot weather in Western Southland hadn’t been invented either, and probably still hasn’t been.
Each of these three rivers is why almost every Southland kid is a strong swimmer. We all knew of an excellent swimming hole in at least one of these rivers. If you were really lucky you could drive through a paddock and get right to the very best swimming hole. And if you were lottery-winner lucky, a thoughtful farmer (aka Wilson) would have trimmed some overhanging willow branches to make a springy diving board that was every bit as good as the fancy one at Moana Pool way up north in Dunedin. There was a comfy patch of grass next to the river on which a picnic lunch or dinner was had and that often involved a roasting-dish-sized bacon and egg pie, Belgium-sausage sandwiches and caramel slice (Highlander condensed milk pops up in all the best picnic boxes), all washed down with 2 or 3 flagons of orange or lemon Jungle Juice because chilled Sav Blanc hadn’t been invented yet either.
eN-Zed 