The Kakanui Range (or Kakanui Mountains) is a range of high hills located inland from

Oamaru Oamaru (; ) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast; State Highway 1 (New Zealand), Sta ...

in the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

of New Zealand. The range forms a boundary between the valley of the

Waitaki River The Waitaki River is a large braided river in the South Island of New Zealand. It drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast. It starts at the confluence of the Ōhau Ri ...

to the north and the high plateau known as the

Maniototo The Maniatoto Plain, usually simply known as The Maniatoto, is an elevated inland region in Otago, New Zealand. The region roughly surrounds the upper reaches of the Taieri River and the Manuherikia River. It is bounded by the Kakanui Range to ...

and the upper watershed of the

Taieri River The Taieri River (a misspelling of the original Māori name ''Taiari'' ) is the fourth-longest river in New Zealand and is in Otago in the South Island. Rising in the Lammerlaw Range, it initially flows north, then east around the Rock and Pill ...

to the southwest. The western Kakanui Range is crossed by road at Danseys Pass, which has a

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

at . The eastern portions start to the north east of The Pigroot and Pigroot Hill to the east of the road is a foothill of the range.

Geology

The southwestern slopes of the Kakanui Range were a major goldfield during the

Otago gold rush The Otago gold rush (often called the Central Otago gold rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area � ...

of the 1860s. Relics from this goldrush can be found at

Kyeburn Kyeburn is a small settlement in Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and L ...

and

Naseby Naseby is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census was 687. The village is north of Northa ...

. The Kakanui Range is composed of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of the Rakaia Terrane. This has been described as quartzofeldspathic semischist. The Kakanuis continue as the Horse Range and then the Blue Mountains (there is another range called the Blue Mountains in Otago) to the Pacific at

Shag Point Shag Point / Matakaea is a headland and township in East Otago, New Zealand. Both the point and the nearby Shag River take their English name from a seabird, the pied shag. The township extends along a single road, which leaves State Highw ...

. Except where exposed by stream erosion or road cuttings there is no surface evidence of the

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

deposits from what must have been a surface eruption at about 112 million years ago that extends this distance of and was subsequently covered by ocean sediments.

Soil

The soil in farmland near the ranges is acid and has the potential to cause aluminium toxicity in crops. Partial mitigation can be with lime, with full mitigation with

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

unlikely to be economic.

Peaks

The highest point in the Kakanui Range is Mount Pisgah, at .

References

{{Reflist Mountain ranges of Otago