One of the most popular tramping routes in Canterbury enters the East Harper via Cass Saddle and exits via Lagoon Saddle at the head of the West Harper.

The waters of the Harper River and its major tributary, the Avoca River, are channelled into Lake Coleridge via a structure known as the Harper Diversion which was constructed in 1921 as part of a hydroelectricity project.

The Harper Avoca catchment has been the site of much ecological research since the mid-1950s.

The Harper is comparatively well documented by early European explorers including Julius von Haast and Samuel Butler.

This article about a river in Canterbury, New Zealand is a stub.