The stream drains the south eastern and eastern slopes of
Flagstaff,
Kaikorai Hill and the
Balmacewen area, flows through Kaikorai Valley and Green Island and empties into Kaikorai Estuary. The
water catchment area is and has about 15,000 residents. There are two branches both sometimes known as 'Kaikorai Stream'.
Balmacewen The branch of the Kaikorai Stream which flows through Balmacewen has its
source in the
Otago Golf Club's Balmacewen Golf Course. A pond and areas of swamp and forest and a
community garden have been developed here in a
wetland conservation project of the Dunedin Environment Centre Trust. This land was originally intended for a
highway linking Kaikorai Valley to
Leith Valley and the
Dunedin Northern Motorway. Work was carried out in 1925 to pipe the "unsightly" stream through the suburb of
Kaikorai, past the
Kaikorai Presbyterian Church and beneath
social housing built on the former
Kaikorai Cable Car depot. It continues partly in open stream but mainly in pipes up to 100 years old maintained by
Dunedin City Council through private residential property. The Kaikorai Stream culvert is joined by
tributaries from
Halfway Bush, then empties into the much larger '''Fraser's Creek'''.
Fraser's Creek Fraser's Creek provides the bulk of the Kaikorai Stream's flow, and superficially appears to be the "main" river, and is indeed labelled
Kaikorai Stream on some official maps. Excess water (brought here by pipeline from Deep Creek in the
Taieri River catchment) is discharged from a city
water reservoir. This spilling has taken place since the mid 1970s, providing a source of cool, clear water of high quality that would otherwise not be available in the Kaikorai catchment. In dry weather, about two thirds of the flow of the Kaikorai Stream comes from this outflow. Pupils of the adjacent
Kaikorai Valley College use the stream for
outdoor education, studying water quality and flow, learning
fly fishing and monitoring waste water. Many industries in Kaikorai Valley discharge waste water into the stream. At
Burnside the river turns west through
Green Island, mainly in a channel lined with
concrete alongside the
Dunedin Southern Motorway. Below Green Island, the stream is joined by major tributary Abbots Creek then resumes a southwest course, reaching the
Pacific Ocean at
Waldronville, where its outflow is a
lagoon, the Kaikorai Estuary (also known as the Waldronville Lagoon or Kaikorai Lagoon). This lagoon is part of a research project aimed at establishing a national estuarine monitoring protocol. It is inhabited by
black swans, and
spoonbills are also sometimes observed. Though only a short stream some in length, it has been important to the industrial history of Dunedin. Many local industries have used power from the stream, most notably the
Roslyn Mills. ==Flora and fauna==