Where to Stay in Hastings, Hawke's Bay

What is Hastings known for?

Napier is the first. The two sit close enough, Hastings lying about 18 kilometres south of the coastal city, that they are commonly called the Bay Cities or the Twin Cities, and between them they account for the urban side of Hawke's Bay. Food is the other reputation, strong enough that Hastings is described as the food-producing capital of New Zealand.

What are the main landmarks in Hastings?

Splash Planet is the city's crowd-puller. The Hastings Sports Centre handles the other kind of visit, and between them they cover most of what draws people to the city outside its streets. Churches carry the older names.

St Matthew's Anglican Church and St Matthew's Church share a dedication, and St Matthew's Memorial Cairn marks the same in stone, while the downtown architecture that survived the 1931 earthquake is a landmark in its own right.

What is the history of Hastings?

Hastings dates from 1873. The city that grew from that laying-out spent its first six decades much like other towns of Hawke's Bay, and then one event rewrote it. The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake struck hard.

Hastings took heavy damage, but the fires that so often follow such a shock did not take hold here, and the result was a downtown that lost buildings without losing its whole fabric. That distinction still shows in the streets. Much of what stood before the shaking is still visible in the city's downtown architecture, and it stands mixed with the Art Deco put up in the rebuilding that followed, so two eras share the same blocks.

Napier is the comparison. The neighbouring city about 18 kilometres north went through the same event with a different outcome, which is why the two are read together as the Bay Cities and yet look distinct. Later decades were less kind to the city's reputation.

Hastings was long thought of as an unattractive place to visit, a judgement that stuck for years, and the council's push for central business district redevelopment has been the answer to it. Food kept the economy steady throughout. The surrounding country made Hastings the food-producing capital of New Zealand, and Havelock North and Clive grew alongside it as part of the same urban area.

Where is Hastings?

Hastings stands on the east coast of the North Island, in Hawke's Bay, about 18 kilometres south of Napier. Two cities share the bay. Havelock North and Clive lie close by and are counted into the same urban area, so the built ground here runs as a cluster of settlements rather than one continuous city.

The open coast lies on the eastern side.

What is the climate of Hastings?

Sun is the local statistic that matters. Hastings counts among the sunniest places in New Zealand, taking in well over two thousand hours of it across a year, which is a large part of why the surrounding country produces so much food. Hawke's Bay gets the benefit generally.

Napier shares the same conditions about 18 kilometres north, and the pairing of sun and growing country is what the two Bay Cities have in common more than anything in their built fabric.

How do you get to Hastings?

Napier is the near neighbour and the usual reference. Hastings lies about 18 kilometres south of it on the east coast of the North Island, close enough that arrivals into one city routinely finish in the other. The run between them is short.

Havelock North and Clive sit within the same urban area, so local movement covers all three without much distance, and the Hastings downtown is the focus of the three.