Tuki Tuki, Hastings: Rural Area Guide to Hills Above the Tukituki

Last updated October 2026

Tuki Tuki is a rural locality in Hastings District, set on the elevated foothills east of Havelock North and the Tukituki River. The Hastings District Plan treats the area as a special character zone, where lifestyle living sits alongside pastoral farming, grapes and other specialist crops.

From the hills there are wide views over the Heretaunga Plains and out toward Hawke Bay, with the face of Te Mata Peak across the valley.

Housing is scattered rather than gathered into a village, and the landscape mixes open pasture with shelter plantings and productive blocks. It is not a beach settlement: the bay is part of the outlook, but daily life here is rural, reached along Tuki Tuki Road.

Official Locality Facts

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About Tuki Tuki

The Hastings District Plan describes Tuki Tuki as a locality whose character comes from its landforms and from the mix of uses on them. Bald, bold hills mark the edge of the Heretaunga Plains and the Tuki Tuki River valley.

The plan notes a rolling rural character, elevated foothills, open pasture set against a variety of plantings, and a scattered density of housing. That combination is what the special character zone is written to protect.

The wider locality is also valued for production. Soils, microclimate and topography suit grapes and, increasingly, other specialist crops, as well as more ordinary pastoral farming.

The plan allows a range of land-based activities, and it also recognises that some visitor and tourism uses can fit where their effects on landscape, soils and neighbouring production can be managed. Lifestyle blocks and working land sit side by side, which is why the plan pays close attention to the boundary between them.

The name on maps is split. Land Information New Zealand and the district plan use Tuki Tuki for this locality. The river is recorded as Tukituki. The Māori name is generally understood to mean “to demolish”, a reference to the river’s power in flood.

For Ngāti Kahungunu, and especially Heretaunga Tamatea, the river is a traditional food source and travel route, and a marker between hapū lands. Pā and kāinga once stood along its banks. The hills of Tuki Tuki look down on that valley rather than forming a village of their own.

What you find on the ground is quiet country rather than a coastal street. There is no town centre, no cluster of shops and no school gate in the locality itself. Properties are spread across foothills that the district plan singles out as sensitive to new buildings, earthworks and tree removal.

A Land Information Memorandum for a site in the special character zone includes a note that this is a productive rural area, where spraying, farm machinery, bird scarers and night harvesting are part of ordinary practice.

Getting Around

The practical way in is Tuki Tuki Road, which runs through the hills east of Havelock North and the river. It is a rural road, not a through-route with a timetable. Visitors and residents should expect to drive, and to allow for farm traffic, harvest machinery and unsealed or narrow sections depending on the exact address.

The river is crossed nearby by Red Bridge and Black Bridge. Planning material for Tuki Tuki Road describes a local walking and cycling circuit that uses those crossings, with a limestone path on the stopbanks reached from the end of Moore Road.

On the Havelock North side of the valley, the Tukituki Loop of the Landscapes Ride follows the countryside between Te Mata Road and the Craggy Range area, with views back over the river. That ride is a neighbouring trail, not a path through the locality itself.

Getting Outdoors

The outdoors here is the hills and the valley, not a surf beach. The district plan’s own description is the best guide: an elevated position looking over both Hawke Bay and the Heretaunga Plains, with the river valley below and Te Mata Peak as the landmark across the water. Open pasture, shelter belts and productive plantings shape most walks you will do from the roadside.

The Tukituki reaches the sea at Haumoana, where the estuary is a separate place with its own bird habitat. Coastal communities such as Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton lie toward the bay from these hills.

Tuki Tuki shares their outlook more than their street pattern. If you are here for the water, treat the river and the estuary as their own destinations, and check conditions before you swim or launch anything.

History and Heritage

The written planning history of the locality is the special character zone in the Hastings District Plan. The plan’s aim is to keep the landscape and the soil resource intact while allowing lifestyle living on land that can absorb it.

Buildings are the change most likely to alter the foothills, so density, siting and appearance are controlled. Excavation, filling and the loss of trees that contribute to the character of the zone are treated the same way.

Longer history sits with the river. Tukituki has carried people and food for Heretaunga Tamatea, and a tradition recorded with the name tells of two taniwha whose struggle split the Waipawa and Tukituki and drained a lake at the southern end of the system. That story belongs to the catchment, not to a single road.

On the hills, the heritage that visitors can still read is the working landscape: pasture, vines, shelter and a thin scatter of houses kept low in the view.

Near Tuki Tuki

Just outside Tuki Tuki, within 10 km of its centre, nearest first.

Places

Te Mata PeakHill and Lookout Walks · 3.3 kmTukituki River FishingFreshwater Fishing Spots · 4.3 kmTukituki River TrailRural and Nature Walks · 4.4 kmTukituki LoopRiver and Coastal Trails · 4.4 kmMaraetotara FallsWaterfalls · 5.0 km

Businesses

All 3Services 2Places to Stay 1

Ingrid Milnes Metabolic Health CoachingHealth Coaches · 7.3 kmFeaturedPositive Electrical Hawkes BayElectricians · 5.2 kmTrevelmond Boutique AccommodationHotels and Resorts · 7.3 km

Where to Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Tuki Tuki?
It is a rural locality in Hastings District, on the hills east of Havelock North and the Tukituki River, with views toward Hawke Bay.

Is Tuki Tuki the same as the Tukituki River?
No. Tuki Tuki is the locality name used by Land Information New Zealand and the district plan. Tukituki is the river that runs through the valley below the hills and meets the sea at Haumoana.

Is Tuki Tuki a coastal village?
No. It is a scattered rural area with a coastal outlook. The beach settlements of Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton are separate communities closer to the shore.

What is the Tuki Tuki Special Character Zone?
It is a Hastings District Plan zone written to protect the locality’s landscape and productive land while allowing lifestyle living and some visitor activities where effects can be managed.

Are there shops or a school in Tuki Tuki?
Neither. Everyday shopping is in Havelock North. Haumoana School is the nearest primary named in planning material for Tuki Tuki Road, and Havelock North has intermediate and secondary schools. Check zones before you rely on them.

How do you get there?
Drive in on Tuki Tuki Road from the Havelock North and river side of the district. There is no confirmed local bus service.

What does the name mean?
Tukituki is generally understood to mean “to demolish”, referring to the river in flood. A related tradition tells of two taniwha whose fight divided the Waipawa and Tukituki rivers.

What should someone moving here expect?
A productive rural setting, not a serviced suburb. Council information for the special character zone notes that agricultural spraying, machinery, bird scarers and night harvesting are part of life next door. Ask for a Land Information Memorandum before you buy, including any land-stability or fault notes for the specific site.

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Explore Hastings only lists suburbs officially recognised by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), and Tuki Tuki is one of them. Suburb boundary: LINZ, CC BY 4.0.