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Story: South Canterbury region

River travel

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River travel

Mōkihi are rafts made from bundles of raupō stalks tightly bound by flax. The vessels were well suited to travelling the rapid braids of the region’s rivers. This 1852 drawing by Walter Mantell shows a mōkihi beached beside the Waitaki River.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: C-103-098-2

by Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

John Wilson, South Canterbury region – Māori in South Canterbury, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/11326/river-travel (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by John Wilson, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 February 2017.