This waterway appears on some older waterway plans as the “Cashmere Drain” or even on recent maps as the “Cashmere Brook”. It is named in the CCC 3Waters maps on Canterbury Maps as “Waimōkihi Stream”. Waimōkihi more properly is a reference to the stretch of the Heathcote River upstream of the confluence.
In older maps and plans, the stream joining at its mid-point is the Wilderness Creek. This creek is almost invisible now because of drainage systems.
1948 drainage plan shows original path of the streams. Click to enlarge
The level of flow throughout the year where this stream joins the river indicates that somewhere, probably in many places rather than just one, this stream is spring-fed.
If you look at the 1948 Drainage map, you can see the clear original path of the headwater stream. This is Wilderness Creek the top part of which, early in the city’s drainage history, was diverted into a drain which was then named the Wilderness Drain. The bottom part of the Wilderness Creek still drains into the middle of the Waimōkihi Stream (Cashmere Drain) inside the grounds of Cashmere High School but both sections are almost entirely piped and are not visible .
Unusually, Waimōkihi Stream has two outfalls into the river although, even close to Fairview Street, the stream flows away from Fairview Street towards the outfall opposite 259 Ashgrove Terrace.
The stream flows between private properties and through the grounds of Cashmere High School before being piped under Barrington Street and then beneath Ashgrove Terrace to enter the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River opposite the driveway to 259 Ashgrove Terrace. Generally, the bed of the stream is gravel/stones and the water is relatively sediment-free, even in high-rainfall events.
Cashmere High School student body has adopted the stretch of the waterway that runs through the school grounds for restoration planting on its banks.
