Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Vanishing Kaikōura quake lake
Tucked in the rugged mountain range north of Kaikōura, a lake formed after the 2016 earthquake – but almost 10 years later, there is almost no trace.
After the 7.8 magnitude earthquake the natural “lake” became a popular tourist attraction as its blue waters spanned 400m in length, 100m wide, 35m deep at the deepest point and was located about 840m above sea level in the Kaikōura mountain range.
It was formed after a 150m landslide plunged into the Hāpuku River and blocked the water within it – creating the lake.
While there was no official name for the scenic attraction, locals had come to know it as Hāpuku Lake because it formed next to the Hāpuku River.
Environment Canterbury rivers manager David Aires said the lake was “largely gone now” from the channel slowly deepening during successive floods that lowered its levels. Abracadabra, Hāpuku Lake – now you see it, now you don’t.
South Pacific Helecopters chief executive Daniel Stevenson said Hāpuku Lake quickly became a key drawcard after the earthquake and tours were taken almost daily as part of general sight-seeing trips.
Stevenson spilt the aviation secrets and said they flew to the lake to showcase different areas of Kaikōura “so it’s not just the marine life which is fantastic, but it’s in to the mountains as well which are just beautiful”.
In 2020, just after Cyclone Gita the tours to the Lake weren’t the same as the water levels began playing hide and seek.
“It was a natural phenomenon and then it disappeared, which happens ... but we still go there to tell the narrative.”
When the earthquake shook things up, the initial concerns were that Hāpuku Lake had the potential to overflow and flood down the valley, and reach the
State Highway 1 bridge. Canterbury Civil
Defence even warned people to stay away after the large shake came risks of landslides and slips into the rivers of North Canterbury and Kaikōura.
“There is a 150m high dam caused by the earthquakes which could rapidly fail, spilling water and debris from the new ‘lake’ over (or through) the dam due to heavy rain and building pressure,” they said at the time. At the time, Environment Canterbury strongly advised the public to keep away from all riverbeds in case water suddenly released itself.
For now Aires spilt the geological beans that despite no rapid overflow of Hāpuku Lake over the last seven years, a “significant” amount of gravel from the original earthquake slip had “naturally moved downstream through the Hāpuku River gorge”.
Hāpuku Lake – gone but never forgotten.