Waipawa is a small town in the North Island of New Zealand.

It is approximately half an hour’s drive from Hastings in beautiful Central Hawkes Bay.

The town has hills on three sides which are covered in trees and in the autumn if you are driving north you are greeted with a beautiful display of autumn colours. The trees are one of the things that strike me about Waipawa and perhaps that is why I chose to live up on the hill surrounded by them.

The other dominant geographic feature of Waipawa is of course the Waipawa River (which is the whole reason for our town being situated where it is – as explained in my little history section).

The river is a popular place for swimming and of course trout fishing and it winds its way down from our Ruahine Mountain Ranges which is a great place for tramping.

In the township itself our streets are not set out in an orderly grid or rectangular pattern and this can sometime confuse visitors as they do not expect dissecting roads forming triangles… so turning right or left can sometimes have more than one option.