Whirinaki is a small coastal settlement in

Hastings District Hastings is a town in the United Kingdom, most famous for the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Hastings may also refer to: Places Australia * Hastings, Tasmania, a locality * Hastings, Victoria, Australia ** Electoral district of Hastings, Victoria, ...

, in the eastern

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

of New Zealand. It sits just north of the mouth of the Esk River, a few kilometres east of Eskdale and a similar distance north of Bay View, which is part of Napier. It lies on State Highway 2, just north of its junction with State Highway 5. Pan Pac timber and wood pulp mill, which opened in 1973 and is one of Hawke's Bay's largest industrial plants, is at Whirinaki. The diesel-powered Whirinaki Power Station opened next to the mill in 1978, later closed and then reopened in 2004. Designed to be a standby power station, it has a total capacity of 155 MW and is owned and operated by

Contact Energy Contact Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation, electricity generator, a wholesaler of natural gas, and a retailer of electricity retailing, electricity, natural gas, broadband and Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG. It is the second ...

. A mountain bike park is immediately north of the mill. Pētane Marae is in a rural area nearby. It is a meeting place for Ngāti Matepū and Ngāti Whakaari, two ''

hapū In Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief ...

'' (sub-tribes) of the

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi (tribe) located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The Kahungunu iwi also comprises 86 hapū (sub-tribes ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

'' (tribe). Te Amiki is the name of the

meeting house A meeting house (also spelled meetinghouse or meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes private meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a: * chu ...

. In October 2020, the Government committed $6,020,910 from the

Provincial Growth Fund Shane Geoffrey Jones (born 3 September 1959) is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the New Zealand First party. Jones' political career began 2005 New Zealand general election, in 2005 as a l ...

to upgrade 19 Hawke's Bay marae, including Pētane Marae. The funding was expected to create 39 jobs. Pan Pac mill and Pētane Marae were flooded when the Esk River overtopped stopbanks during

Cyclone Gabrielle Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that devastated parts of the North Island of New Zealand and affected parts of Vanuatu and Norfolk Island in February 2023. It is the costliest tropical cyclone ...

in February 2023.

Demographics

Statistics New Zealand describes Whirinaki as a rural settlement, which covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². It is part of the larger Puketapu-Eskdale statistical area. Whirinaki had a population of 384 at the

2018 New Zealand census The 2018 New Zealand census, which took place on Tuesday 6 March 2018, was the thirty-fourth national census in New Zealand. The population of New Zealand was counted as 4,699,755 – an increase of 457,707 (10.79%) over the 2013 census. Resu ...

, an increase of 48 people (14.3%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 42 people (12.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 150 households, comprising 192 males and 198 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.97 males per female, with 57 people (14.8%) aged under 15 years, 42 (10.9%) aged 15 to 29, 204 (53.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 84 (21.9%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 92.2% European/

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

, 13.3%

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, 0.8% Pasifika, 3.1% Asian, and 3.9% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 57.0% had no religion, 33.6% were

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 0.8% had

Māori religious beliefs Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, 0.8% were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 0.8% were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and 1.6% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 66 (20.2%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 63 (19.3%) people had no formal qualifications. 78 people (23.9%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 171 (52.3%) people were employed full-time, 66 (20.2%) were part-time, and 9 (2.8%) were unemployed.

Notes

References

{{coord, 39, 22, 34, S, 176, 53, 36, E, display=title, region:NZ_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Hastings District Populated places in Hawke's Bay