By Bill Morris for Frank Film 22/6/26

The Waitaha river hydro scheme, its supporters say, will bring energy resilience to the West Coast. But is it worth draining one of the world’s last remaining wild rivers for?

When Greymouth-based outdoor recreation student Claire Thomas heard about the Waitaha run-of-river hydroelectricity scheme being rushed through under the government’s fast-track legislation, she and some friends decided to pay this remote corner of the South Island’s West Coast a visit. After a three-hour scramble through dripping rainforest, they stood on the banks of Morgan Gorge and watched, awestruck, as 35 cubic metres a second of white water thundered through the schist chasm. “It was just so big,” Thomas tells Frank Film, “so much bigger than me, or anyone.” Thomas and her fellow students were so moved they made a film about the river, which premiered at Hokitika’s Regent Theatre.

Another who recently visited Morgan Gorge is New Zealand Geographic photographer Neil Silverwood. “The energy inside that gorge is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced,” he says. “You can put your hands on the walls and feel the vibration from the power of the water.”

The glacier-fed Waitaha spills out of a high mountain basin in the Southern Alps and roars through two gorges on its way to the sea. The last of these, Morgan Gorge, is esteemed by the whitewater kayaking community as the pinnacle of the sport in this country – the Aoraki/Mount Cook of rivers. Only a handful of people have ever ridden it all the way through.

The river’s immense power is also what makes it attractive for hydroelectricity generation. For years, business interests have had their eyes on the Waitaha. A run-of-river scheme extracting water from the top of Morgan Gorge and funneling it through a tunnel to a hydro station, before returning the water to the river at the base of the gorge, will, its supporters say, generate enough electricity to power 12,000 homes. They argue it will give the West Coast resilience, providing a source of electricity in the event the region ever gets cut off from the national grid by a rupture of the Alpine Fault.

However, Silverwood fears that rather than giving the Coast resilience, the scheme’s one-kilometre proximity to the Alpine Fault might actually make it a massive liability. The dynamic nature of the Waitaha riverbed, he points out, could see one major weather event burying the intake in hundreds of tonnes of gravel. “The West Coast is littered with schemes and dreams, failed mines, failed ventures. In my view, there's every chance the Waitaha Scheme will become the next one of those.”

In 2019, the scheme was rejected by the Labour government on the grounds that it would significantly undermine the pristine area’s intrinsic wild values. However, under the current coalition government’s fast-track process, a rebooted version of the scheme has been approved. Community-owned power generator Westpower has been cleared to take up to 23 cumecs of water from the river and reduce the flow of water in Morgan Gorge down to a tenth of its average flow–3.5 cumecs. No public submissions were considered on the application.

Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson is delighted by the result. “The Waitaha is something that our Mayors, Chairs and Iwi, and our councils, have been advocating for some time,” she says. "We have some of the highest power bills in the country. Along with economic development, local companies will be utilized while it's being built.” Poutini Ngāi Tahu is supportive of the project.

Development West Coast CEO Heath Milne also sees big benefits for the region. “There's no dams, so there's no flooding of the environment upstream of the scheme, and the road access that will be put in there will allow more people to access that pristine valley at the top.”

One of the few who has kayaked Morgan Gorge is Hokitika doctor Justin Venable. He argues that road access will open up much more of the Waitaha Valley to development. “Once there's infrastructure in the head of Morgan Gorge, there's nothing to stop the next scheme, the next project,” he says.

“Less than 1% of rivers on earth are in their wild natural unmodified state. It's a vanishingly rare phenomenon. We want places that are unique to New Zealand, to the West Coast, and to the world to remain able to be enjoyed for future generations. If we squander that wealth for the sake of a filthy dollar in the short term, it's gone forever.”

Footage/Photo Credits:

Two Dash Productions
Neil Silverwood
Eli Johnson
Claire Thomas
Richard Bramley
Sid Tinney
Jason Blair @Katabatic Media


THANKS:
Phil Palzer and Rata Lovell-Smith
Eli Johnson
Wayne Johnson
Claire Thomas
Rory McDougall
Jason Blair
Justin Venable
Neil Silverwood
Tania Gibson
Heath Milne
Dave Kwant


Director, Producer and Camera: Gerard Smyth
Second Camera: Bill Morris
Line Producers: Kirsty Cooper & Antony Miller
Editor: Sarah Grohnert
Research: Bill Morris
Colour & Online: Mike Kelland
Audio Post: Chris Sinclair

Funded by NZ On Air