Wainui River (Bay of Plenty) river. Wainui River (Bay of Plenty) The Wainui River is a river of the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north from the Kaimai Range to reach Tauranga Harbour south of Katikati. The catchment has of stream margins. 41% of the catchment remains covered in native bush, but 48% is under pasture and suffers soil erosion. The river includes 3 waterfalls of up to , which have been kayaked. The long former East Coast Main Trunk railway bridge is designated as the limit of the Coastal Marine Area. Downstream, a 3-span bridge takes SH2 over
Bay of Plenty in the region struggled: the climate was ill-suited to sheep farming and the geography was inaccessible, further hindered by a lack of infrastructure. By the end of the century the population had started to dwindle. But after experimenting with different crops, settlers found success with dairy production. Dairy factories sprang up across the Bay of Plenty in the 1900s, with butter and cheese feeding economic prosperity throughout the early 20th century; local Māori continued to live on the fringe of this prosperity. Timber also became a major export in the 1950s, as kiwifruit did later. The present Bay of Plenty