Ahuriri Lagoon

Ahuriri Lagoon (Māori: Te Whanganui-a-Orotū) was a large tidal lagoon at Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, that largely drained when the area was raised by the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

Before the earthquake, the lagoon stretched several kilometres from north to south, and covered roughly 4000 hectares (ha), or 40 km2.

Land reclamation and drainage work further reduced the estuary to its present size of 470 ha.

[4] European settlers established Napier on Scinde Island (present day Bluff Hill) in the harbour, and it soon became a prosperous region on New Zealand's east coast.

A broad shallow river channel runs along the western edge and across the southern half of the reclaimed land, flowing into Hawke Bay at Ahuriri Estuary, to the west of the suburb of Ahuriri and Bluff Hill.