The Napier-Hastings Urban Area is a New Zealand urban area that covers the twin cities of Napier and Hastings. It is the fifth largest urban area in the country with a population of over 128,600. This is closely followed by Tauranga (116,000), and Dunedin (114,900).

While the two cities remain separated by 10km of rural land, there is sufficient economic and social integration between the cities for Statistics New Zealand to aggregate them into a single unit. However, like the urban areas of Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington, the Napier-Hastings urban area is subdivided into urban zones. Both zones have a population of around 60,000. The urban area contains around three quarters of the population of the entire Hawke's Bay.

Hastings Urban Zone is completely within Hastings District and includes Havelock North, Flaxmere, Clive and Haumoana. 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 however contains around 60,000 of this (Hastings Central at 30,000, Havelock North at 10,000, Flaxmere at 10,000, and various smaller settlements with in the immediate Hastings area, ie not including settlements and rural communities in the former Hawkes Bay County Council).

Hastings has gained a number of services in the process of pre-ammalgamation, for instance Hawkes Bay Hospital (the regions' major public hospital), Hawkes Bay Today (Hawkes Bay's only daily paper), and Hawkes Bay Regional Sports Park. Hastings also contains the regions' showgrounds, racecourse, and hosts the larger format retail stores like Harvey Norman, K-mart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Spotlight, and various other LFT stores.

The city of Hastings is a major urban settlement in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island of New Zealand, and it is the largest settlement by population in Hawke's Bay. Hastings city is the administrative centre of the Hastings District. Hastings is located some 20 km inland from the neighbouring port city of Napier.

Less than twenty kilometres separate the centres of Hastings and Napier, and as such the two are often grouped together as "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities", and are increasingly treated together in official statistics. Their combined population is 124,400, making the combined urban area the fifth-largest by population in New Zealand, between Hamilton (203,400) and Tauranga (120,000).

The principal settlements in the Hastings District are the city of Hastings itself and the nearby towns of Flaxmere and Havelock North. These main centres are surrounded by thirty-eight rural settlements, including Clive, Haumoana and Bridge Pā. Hastings District covers an area of 5,229 square kilometres (2,019 sq mi) and has 1.7 % of the population of New Zealand, ranking it fourteenth in size out of the seventy-four territorial authorities. Since the merger of the surrounding and satellite settlements, Hastings has grown to become the largest urban area in Hawke's Bay.

The Hastings district has a long history of a food producing region, and is commonly referred to as the 'Fruit Bowl of New Zealand'. The fertile plains surrounding the city have grow an abundance of stone fruit, vegetables, and more recently has become the base of New Zealand's Red Wine industry. Associated business included food processing, agricultural services, rural finance, and freight. Hastings also is the major service centre for the surrounding inland pastoral communities while the service industry and tourism is growing rapidly.

Commerce and Industry

Hastings City Square

Hastings District, as one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in New Zealand, has an important relationship with the Napier Port. It has also become an important grape growing and wine production area with the fruit passing from the growers around Metropolitan Hastings and then to Napier for exporting. Napier is an important service centre for the agriculture and pastoral output of the predominantly rural Hastings District. Shopping is heavily weighted by large format retail in Hastings City, whereas in contrast, Havelock North, Taradale and central Napier retail areas have a more boutique flavour.

Redevelopment

By the end of the twentieth century, Hastings was declining, suffering economic downturn with industries and freezing works closing due to the agricultural subsidy reforms in the early 1980s. However, after multi-million dollar regeneration projects and the employment of artists, Hastings has seen a change in its aesthetics. A CBD strategy was enforced to revitalise the central retail core, while promoting Havelock North as a 'luxury boutique' destination. The strategy was successful and Hastings vacancy rates ended up lower than Napier by 2005. The current goal of the council is to continue developing Hastings CBD to attract more recognised national chains, which have in the past completely neglected the city in favour of Napier. Attracting more cafes and entertainment venues is currently active in the Eastern blocks of Heretaunga St.

A controversial idea by the Hastings District Council is to relocate the Nelson Park sports ground to a new facility on the edge of the Hastings urban area to make way for a large megacentre, also known as 'Large Format Stores'. A comprehensive study was conducted before the sale concluding that retaining big box development within the CBD will help boutique stores prosper as opposed to locating the development on a greenfield site. Charter Hall, the developers behind 'Home HQ Hawkes Bay', have confirmed as of August 2010, the major anchors of the development will be Hawkes Bay's largest 'The Warehouse' and the relocation of the cities' Mitre 10 Mega. The new sports park is proposed as a regional facility and includes a velodrome, all-weather athletics track and sports grounds for most other sporting codes represented in NZ sport.

Tourism

Hastings District is quite historic and is very welcoming of tourists, and features a tourism industry based on 'lifestyle' activities rather than attractions. The majority of tourists are domestic, usually 'weekenders' from Auckland or Wellington. Scheduled airline services to Hawke's Bay operate through Hawke's Bay Airport, though Hastings Aerodrome is available for private planes is nearby.

Hastings' largest draw card is the wine and food trail established around the productive hinterland. There are over 75 wineries in the surrounding area, including New Zealand's oldest winery restaurant (Vidal Estate). Boutique food industries are becoming popular with cheese, fine meats, and locally produced delicacies seen on display at the Hawkes Bay Farmer's Market (New Zealand's oldest and largest weekly farmer's market). Outdoor leisure activities dominate, with beaches, river, mountain biking, tramping, and golf, being popular. In summer, many large scale events attract domestic tourists including the Spring Racing Carnival, The Blossom Parade, Harvest Hawkes Bay Weekend, and various concerts and events usually held at wineries. The Blossom Festival was once a large national event in the mid 20th century, with charter trains from Wellington and Auckland coming for the event. This however has slowly declined in popularity.

Hastings' specialist attractions include: Hawke's Bay's largest amusement park, a water park called 'Splash Planet', which replaced 'Fantasyland' near the turn of the millennium, Cape Kidnappers (The world's largest mainland Gannet colony), Te Mata Peak, and access to an abundance of nature reserves and mountain treks. Architecturally speaking, Hastings suffered similar to Napier in the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. However, because of the lesser damage by fire, Hastings maintained more pre earthquake buildings. Both towns gained a legacy from the disaster by rebuilding in the then-fashionable and highly distinctive Art Deco style, similar to that of Miami, FL, USA. Hastings also pocesses a large percentage of Spanish Mission architecture (popular as with Art Deco in the early 1930s). Sadly, Hastings succumbed to rapid redevelopment in the 1960s-70s which saw many 1930s buildings replaced.

Horse of the Year show

Hawkes Bay A&P Showgrounds in Hastings is the home to the annual NZ Horse of the year show, held in March. It is one of the biggest sporting events in the southern hemisphere, and attracts 2500 horse and rider combinations competing in 19 disciplines including Dressage, Showhunter, Eventing, Showjumping and polocrosse and many breed classes to name a few. It has a budget of around $NZD3million, and attracts over 70,000 visitors from over NZ and internationally over the 5-day show.

Geography

Located on New Zealand's east coast, to the east of the Central Plateau and the rain shadow of the Kaweka Ranges, Hastings is situated on the fertile alluvial Heretaunga Plains. The plains have were originally covered in swamp and mangroves, but have since been drained for agriculture. The local area is very productive, with orchards, farms and vineyards, and lies upon New Zealand's 2nd largest aquifer .