Tukituki River

The Tukituki River is found in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It flows from the Ruahine Ranges to the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of Hawke's Bay.

The river flows for 117 kilometres (73 mi), east and then northeast, passing through the town of Waipukurau before flowing into Hawke Bay close to the city of Hastings. There, the Tukituki Valley is separated from Havelock North/Hastings by the craggy range of hills that includes Te Mata Peak.

The Maori name Tukituki roughly translates "to demolish", presumably referring to the power of the river in flood. Maori legend has it that there are two taniwha living in lake at the southern end of the river that fought over a young boy after he fell into the lake. The struggle of the two taniwha was thought to split the river into the Waipawa and Tukituki Rivers and thereby draining the lake.

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Coordinates: 39°36′S 176°57′E / 39.600°S 176.950°E / -39.600; 176.950

Tukituki (New Zealand electorate)

Tukituki is a New Zealand parliamentary electorate, returning one Member of Parliament to the House of Representatives of New Zealand. Named after the Tukituki River which runs through the electorate, it was established for the 1996 general election and has existed since. The current MP for Tukituki is Craig Foss of the National Party, who has held this position since 2005.

Population centres

Tukituki was created ahead of the change to mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting at the 1996 election; it is a merger of the old Hastings seat with Central Hawke's Bay District. Tukituki centres on the southern Hawke's Bay region, with the bulk of the electorate's population coming from the city of Hastings, with other towns drafted in to bring the electorate up to the required population. In 2008, a general northwards tug on boundaries in the Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui and Hawke's Bay regions saw Waipukurau and Waipawa moved into the Wairarapa electorate, in exchange for which Tukituki gained the suburbs and towns around Cape Kidnappers from the Napier electorate. No boundary adjustments were undertaken in the subsequent 2013/14 redistribution.