Tasman River
Tasman River
The Tasman River is an alpine braided river in Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island. It starts in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park as the outflow of Tasman Lake, a proglacial lake formed by the Tasman Glacier. The river also gains water from the Murchison River, coming from the Murchison Glacier, and from the Hooker River, fed by lakes near the Hooker and Mueller glaciers.
The river runs about 25 kilometers south through the wide Tasman Valley in the Southern Alps, then flows into the northern end of Lake Pukaki. From there its waters are part of the Waitaki River system and help feed the Waitaki hydroelectric scheme.
In 2019, the Department of Conservation released a pilot study looking at invertebrate biodiversity in the Tasman River flood plain, showing ecological interest in the area.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:17 (CET).