Canterbury is home to many of New Zealand’s lakes and streams and they have been places where people grew up fishing or exploring. However, these waters have changed over time and the fish that were once abundant, are slowly disappearing.
Lake Ellesmere, also known as Te Waihora, is one of these waters. Located south of Christchurch, Lake Ellesmere is also known to Maori as Te Kete Ika a Rakaihautu, meaning the fishing basket of Raikaihauta, who was a leader who travelled around the South Island after coming to New Zealand with his son (who named the lake after him) on the canoe Uruao.
Once known for its bountiful population of trout, flounder, eel, whitebait, and many other food sources, Ellesmere has now become a lake destroyed by the contamination of…
