Napier-Hastings Urban Area


The Napier-Hastings Urban Area lies mostly on the Heretaunga Plains of the Hawke's Bay Region in New Zealand and is a conurbation surrounding the twin cities of Napier and Hastings. It is the sixth-most-populous urban area in the country, with residents, just slightly fewer than Tauranga and more than Dunedin.
While the two cities remain separated by of rural land from city edge to edge, there is sufficient economic and social integration between the cities that Statistics New Zealand considers them as a single unit. However, like the urban areas of Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington, the Napier-Hastings urban area is subdivided into urban zones. The urban area contains around three-quarters of the population of the entire Hawke's Bay.
If Hastings and Napier were to amalgamate they would become the sixth-most-populous city in New Zealand following Tauranga.
The Statistical Standard of Geographic Areas 2018, developed by Statistics New Zealand, will see the Napier-Hastings abolished as a statistical urban area. It will be replaced with four separate urban areas: Napier, Hastings, Havelock North, and Clive.

Geography

Suburbs

Seismicity

Hawke's Bay is one of the most seismically active regions in New Zealand, and as so Napier-Hastings has experienced many large and often damaging earthquakes in the past. More than 50 damaging earthquakes have rocked the area since the European colonisation in the 1800s. Some of the more notable are listed below.
DateLocationMagnitude DepthFatalitiesMore information
8 July 184325 km west of Tikokino7.612 km2
22 February 1863Waipukurau7.525 km1863 Hawke's Bay earthquake
5 October 1911Hastings5.633 km
28 June 1921Kaweka Forest Park7.080 km
3 February 193120 km north of Napier7.820 km256 killed, thousands injured1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
8 February 1931Wairoa6.460 km
13 February 193150 km east of Napier7.330 km
16 September 1932Wairoa6.912 km
15 March 1934Mohaka6.125 km
26 February 1940Hastings6.025 km
31 January 1958Waipawa6.112 km
5 October 1980Hastings5.730 km
11 April 1993Hastings6.138 km
15 October 2001Hastings5.840 km
25 August 2008Hastings5.931 km2008 Hastings earthquake

Education

Napier-Hastings offers a variety of colleges and tertiary studies for students.
The Eastern Institute of Technology, commonly abbreviated to EIT or EIT HB is located along the banks of the Tutaekuri River and offers many different courses for students both in and out of the region. EIT serves as the main regional tertiary education centre for both Hawke's Bay and Gisborne regions. There are 3 campuses: Hawke's Bay, Auckland and Gisborne.
Secondary Schools are as follows:
NameGenderAreaDecileRollWebsiteMOE
Flaxmere CollegeCoedFlaxmere1
Hastings Boys' High SchoolBoysHastings2
Hastings Christian SchoolCoedHastings7
Hastings Girls' High SchoolGirlsHastings2
Havelock North High SchoolCoedHavelock North8
Hohepa Home SchoolCoedTaradale8–
Iona CollegeGirlsHavelock North9
Karamu High SchoolCoedHastings4
Lindisfarne CollegeBoysHastings10
Napier Boys' High SchoolBoysNapier6
Napier Girls' High SchoolGirlsNapier7
Sacred Heart CollegeGirlsNapier5
St John's CollegeBoysHastings4
St Joseph's Māori Girls' CollegeGirlsTaradale3
Taikura Rudolf Steiner SchoolCoedHastings6
Tamatea High SchoolCoedNapier3
Taradale High SchoolCoedTaradale8
TKKM o Ngati Kahungunu Ki HeretaungaCoedFlaxmere1–
TKKM o Te Ara HouCoedNapier2–
William Colenso CollegeCoedNapier2
Woodford HouseGirlsHavelock North9

Urban Zones

For more information, see Napier, New Zealand and Hastings, New Zealand respectively.

Napier Urban Zone

Napier Urban Zone includes Napier and two tracts of rural land from Hastings District: Bay View to the north and Waiohiki to the south. It also includes the township of Taradale.
Napier hosts the region's only port, the region's domestic airport, High Court, the local polytechnic college, and the Hawkes Bay Regional Council headquarters.
Napier on its own is the 10th largest urban area in New Zealand.

Hastings Urban Zone

Hastings Urban Zone lies within the Hastings District and includes Havelock North and Flaxmere. The Hastings District Council consists of almost half of the total population of Hawke's Bay, with 74,000 people. The main urban zone of Hastings contains around 68,000 people.
Hastings hosts the regional Hospital, Hawke's Bay Hospital, along with the regional showgrounds, racecourse, newspaper print, sports park and a water park.
Hastings on its own is the 8th largest urban area in New Zealand.

Amalgamation

Amalgamation is an ongoing debate for Napier and Hastings residents. Both cities have previously had smaller amalgamations.
There was a referendum on forming a joint Hastings and Napier in 1999, which resulted in 75% 'no' vote from Napier residents, and a 64% 'yes' vote from Hastings residents. Many say the referendum was called too early and many Napier residents were still bitter about the closing of Napier Hospital in 1998 and making Hastings Hospital the only public hospital in the region.
A proposal in 2015 was for the new council to also absorb the Wairoa and Central Hawkes Bay councils to make a super regional council of 150,000 people. This amalgamation referendum was held in September 2015, the majority of voters rejected the proposal in favour of the status quo.
Part of recognition of New Zealand's sixth-largest population centre is being labelled that way. Many residents have bought forth renaming the city to reflect this to the rest of the nation instead of referring to the cities by their current separate names. Names proposed include: