Hawke's Bay, New Zealand — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Hawke's Bay known for?

The Heretaunga Plains carry the horticulture that the region is known for, and the same flat ground holds the twin cities of Napier and Hastings along with the satellite towns around them. Then there is the architecture. An earthquake wrecked both cities in 1931, the rebuilding ran through the 1930s, and what came out of it is a concentration of Art Deco frontages from that period.

Sun and dry air do the rest.

Where is Hawke's Bay?

Flat ground carries the region. The Heretaunga Plains hold the population and the horticulture both, spreading out behind the east coast of the North Island and giving Hawke's Bay a settled core that the rest of its territory does not have. Beyond them the country opens.

Waipukurau, Waipawa and Wairoa serve the rural parts, spaced across more than fourteen thousand square kilometres of ground running back from the shore. The coast is the reference. Hawke Bay gave the region its name, and the shoreline along it is what separates the plains and their orchards from the water that makes this side of the North Island what it is.

Island ground, temperate band. Nothing here sits far inland by continental standards, and the region falls well south of the equator, which puts its seasons on the reverse of the northern calendar. Napier and Hastings anchor it.

The two cities stand close enough on the Heretaunga Plains to be spoken of as a pair, while the towns beyond them mark how far the region reaches. The satellite towns fill the gaps. Between Napier, Hastings and the outlying centres of Waipukurau, Waipawa and Wairoa, the settled pattern of Hawke's Bay is a dense middle on the plains with a thin scatter past it.

What is Hawke's Bay like?

The 1931 earthquake rewrote the cities. Napier and Hastings both suffered great destruction, and the rebuilding that ran through the 1930s left them with a concentration of Art Deco architecture that has since become the thing they are known for. One disaster, one style.

The buildings date almost entirely from that decade, which is why the two centres read as period pieces rather than as towns that accumulated their fabric slowly. Growing is the other culture. Orchards, vineyards and gardens work the Heretaunga Plains, and the horticulture there shapes the calendar of the region as firmly as the architecture shapes its streets.

The name looks further back. Hawke's Bay takes it from Hawke Bay, which was itself named in honour of Edward Hawke, so the region carries a British naval name over ground worked for fruit and wine. The towns keep their own pace.

Waipukurau, Waipawa and Wairoa serve the rural districts, and life in them runs on the growing country rather than on the Art Deco streets of Napier and Hastings.

What is the history of Hawke's Bay?

1931 is the pivot. The earthquake that year destroyed much of Napier and Hastings, and the reconstruction carried through the 1930s in the styles of the day, which is how the Art Deco concentration came about. The name predates all of it.

Hawke Bay was named in honour of Edward Hawke, and the region on the east coast of the North Island took its title from the water.

What is the climate of Hawke's Bay?

The east coast keeps it dry. Hawke's Bay lies on that side of the North Island, and the coastal parts around Hawke Bay come out sunny and relatively dry as a result. The plains benefit.

Orchards, vineyards and gardens on the Heretaunga Plains depend on that combination, and the horticulture of the region is bound up with the weather the east coast supplies. Summer arrives around the New Year here, as it does across the southern hemisphere.

How do you get to Hawke's Bay?

Napier and Hastings are the way in. The twin cities on the Heretaunga Plains hold the arrival points for the region, and most journeys into Hawke's Bay end at one of them first. The rural runs take longer.

Waipukurau, Waipawa and Wairoa lie out among the country districts, so reaching them means a further leg from the plains across ground stretching over fourteen thousand square kilometres. Everything comes across the North Island.