Picture taken from the center of Rakaia.

Rakaia - Rakaia visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Rakaia' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Canterbury.

Rakaia is a small township on the southern banks of the Rakaia River on the South Island of New Zealand. It sells itself as the Salmon Capital of New Zealand. The salmon fishing season brings anglers from all over New Zealand and they can be found found lining the banks of the river mouth about 20km east of the town. The Rakaia Salmon Fishing Competition held at the end of February is extremely popular. Rakaia has a number of campsites and motels that cater for the tourist industry.

The Rakaia River is popular not only for the excellent salmon and trout fishing, but also for recreational rafting, kayaking and jet-boating. Aside from the salmon, Rakaia also provides horse trekking, rock-hounding and bird watching along the banks of the river.

Rakaia is also known for the road and rail river crossing. The current crossing was built in 1939, replacing the original bridge built in 1873. The bridge is 1.8km long and spans one of the best examples of a 'braided' river in the world. At the time of construction this bridge was the longest in the Southern Hemisphere.

Rakaia is on the 1 Highway about 60km south of Christchurch and 105km north of Timaru.