Where is the Whanganui River, which received the legal status of a person in 2017 located?

The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the country's third-longest river, and has special status owing to its importance to the region's Māori people (the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand).

In March 2017 it became the world's second (after Te Urewera - the largest area of native forest in New Zeland) natural resource to be given its own legal identity, with the rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person.

Māori legend explains that after Māui caught the giant fish, that was to become the North Island of New Zealand, known as Te Ika-a-Māui, he prayed to Ranginui, who then sent two tear drops to land on Māui's fish. These two tear drops then became the rivers Whanganui and Waikato.

On 30 August 2012 agreement was reached that entitled the Whanganui River to a legal identity, a first in the world, and on 15 March 2017 the relevant settlement was passed into law by the New Zealand Parliament. Chris Finlayson, the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, said the river would have an identity "with all the corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person". He said some people would consider it strange, but it is "no stranger than family trusts, or companies, or incorporated societies". The bill finalised 140-year-old negotiations between Māori and the government.