The Ōruawharo River flows westward into the Kaipara Harbour west of Wellsford on the North Auckland Peninsula of New Zealand. The boundary between the Northland Region and the Auckland Region runs along the length of the river.
The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives translations of "place of [a] stretched-out pit" or "place of Ruawharo [a personal name]" for Ōruawharo.
History
In pre-European times, the Ōruawharo River was important to the Tāmaki Māori people of the Kaipara Harbour. The Opou portage allowed waka to be transported across the Ōkahukura Peninsula between the Ōruawharo and Tauhoa rivers.
Port Albert, on the south bank, was the centre of Albertland, an organised British Nonconformist Christian settlement in the 1860s.
See also List of rivers of New Zealand
References
External links Photographs of Ōruawharo River held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.