The Tuapeka River is located in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a tributary of the Clutha River, which it joins at Tuapeka Mouth between Roxburgh and Balclutha.
The Tuapeka's main claim to fame is as the centre of the Central Otago gold rush of the 1860s. The first major discovery of gold in Otago was at Gabriel's Gully, close to the Tuapeka, in 1861.
