- Kurow
:"For the place of similar name in
Poland seeKurów . For the video game character, seeKurow Kirishima ."Kurow (pop. 339 in 2006 census) is a town in the Waitaki Valley in the
South Island ofNew Zealand . It lies in theWaitaki District within the northern part of the Otago Region, 55 kilometres inland fromOamaru . Kurow lies close to several major hydroelectric projects.Examples of pre-European
Māori cave paintings can be found a handful of kilometres from Kurow, close to the small settlement of Duntroon.Some controversy exists as to the origin of the name. Local
Māori and many current and former residents suggest that it is an Anglicised form of the name of the nearby mountain Te Kohurau.The land around Kurow includes summerfruit
orchard s, and increasing amounts ofPinot Noir are being planted in the limestone soils.For a number of decades, Kurow was the terminus of the
Kurow Branch , abranch line railway that formed part of New Zealand's national rail network. The railway reached Kurow in 1881, terminating across theWaitaki River inHakataramea , but in 1930, the line was cut back to Kurow. From 1928 until 1937, a line owned by the Public Works Department ran from Kurow to provide rail access to a hydroelectric project 6.4km west. The branch railway was closed in 1983 and not many traces remain in Kurow.
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