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 2,540. The town is located 7 kilometres northeast of Waipukurau and 46 km southwest of Hastings, on the northern bank of the Waipawa River, a tributary of the Tukituki River. Waipawa was settled in the early 1860s. It holds the main office of the Central Hawke's Bay District Council, and is New Zealand's oldest inland European settlement.