Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 1,872, a change of -2.0 percent since the 1996 census.
The town is located 7 km northeast of Waipukurau and 46 km southwest of Hastings, on the northern bank of the Waipawa River, a tributary of the Tukituki River.[1][2]. Waipawa was settled in the early 1860s and the Settler’s Museum exhibits many of these historical collections[3] .
It holds the main office of the Central Hawke's Bay District Council, and holds the distinction of being Aotearoa's oldest inland European settlement.
Waipawa was originally called Abbotsford.[4] There was a children's home in Waipawa named Abbotsford.