Waikato River
Overview
 
The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand. In the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

, it runs for 425 kilometres from the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu
Mount Ruapehu
Mount Ruapehu, or just Ruapehu, is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupo Volcanic Zone in New Zealand. It is 23 kilometres northeast of Ohakune and 40 kilometres southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupo, within Tongariro National Park...

, joining the Tongariro River
Tongariro River
The Tongariro River is a river in the North Island of New Zealand. It originates in the Central Plateau of the North Island where it is fed by numerous Tributaries that flow off the surrounding hill ranges and mountains such as Mount Ruapehu...

 system and emptying into Lake Taupo
Lake Taupo
Lake Taupo is a lake situated in the North Island of New Zealand. With a surface area of , it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand, and the second largest freshwater lake by surface area in geopolitical Oceania after Lake Murray ....

, New Zealand's largest lake. It drains Taupo at the lake's northeastern edge, creates the Huka Falls
Huka Falls
The Huka Falls are a set of waterfalls on the Waikato River that drains Lake Taupo in New Zealand.A few hundred metres upstream from the Huka Falls, the Waikato River narrows from roughly 100 metres across into a narrow canyon only 15 metres across...

, and then flows northwest
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...

, through the Waikato Plains
Waikato Plains
The Waikato Plains are a large area of low-lying land in the northwest of the North Island of New Zealand. They are the floodplains of the Waikato River, the country's longest river....

. It empties 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...

 south of Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, at Port Waikato
Port Waikato
Port Waikato is on the south bank of the Waikato River at its outflow into the Tasman Sea, in northern New Zealand. Now a small town with a population of under 300, it was an important port during the New Zealand Land Wars of the 19th century...

. It gives its name to the Waikato
Waikato
The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...

 region that surrounds the Waikato Plains.
 
x
OK