This zone lies between the violent pounding Tasman sea and towering Southern Alps.  Two of the planet's largest tectonic plates collide, on land, uplifting, tearing and shattering. Gigantic glaciers slice deep into the intercontinental fault.

Alps   Glaciers    Rivers      Erosion    Mountains   Tectonics    Coasts    Weather  

We experience the world's highest rain fall, 7m  (and 70m of snow on the mountains). These create the awesome scouring glaciers that rasp the uplifting mountains then dump the debris at their snouts for the fast the flowing rivers to carry it all away. These processes occur so quickly we see them in action and will be able to apply this understanding to all rivers through the world.

See also NZ:-  Geology   Tectonics   Coasts   Glaciers  Lakes    Rivers    Weather   Geography NZ   Mountains NZ