The Kakanui Range is a range of high hills located inland from
Oamaru
Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) 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 coast; State Highway 1 and the ra ...
in the
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasma ...
of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
. The range forms a boundary between the valley of the
Waitaki River
The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the Ō ...
to the north and the high plateau known as the
Maniototo
The Maniototo Plain, usually simply known as The Maniototo, 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 t ...
and the upper watershed of the
Taieri River
The Taieri River 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 Pillar range before turning southeast, reaching the sea sout ...
to the southwest. The highest point in the Kakanui Range is
Mount Pisgah, at 1643 m (5394 ft).
The Kakanui Range is crossed by road at
Danseys Pass, which has a saddle at 935 m (3070 ft).
The southwestern slopes of the Kakanui Range were a major goldfield during the
Central Otago goldrush of the 1860s. Relics from this goldrush can be found at
Kyeburn and
Naseby
Naseby is a village in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 687.
The village is 14 mi (22.5 km) north of Northampton, 13.3 mi (21.4 km) northeast of Daventry, and 7  ...
.
The Kakanuis continue as the
Horse Range to the Pacific at
Shag Point.
Mount Pisgah
The highest point in the Kakanui Range is Mount Pisgah, at .
References
Mountain ranges of Otago
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