Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of 2,400 (June 2022). At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is located 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) northeast of Waipukurau and 46 km (29 mi) southwest of Hastings, on the northern bank of the Waipawa River, a tributary of the Tukituki River. Waipawa was settled in the early 1860s, and the Settler's Museum exhibits many of these historical collections.