Heretaunga Street

Street in New Zealand

Heretaunga Street is the main arterial road through Hastings, New Zealand. The street forms the heart of the Central Business District of Hastings City across six blocks numbered 100, 200, and 300 Blocks with the railway line dividing the blocks by East and West. The name Heretaunga is taken from the name of the Māori Land Block on which Hastings was established in 1873. The majority of buildings along Heretaunga Street were destroyed or damaged in the deadly 1931 Hawke's Bay Earthquake. As a result the six City Centre blocks were rebuilt predominantly between the years 1931 1936 in the architectural styles of Stripped Classicism, Art Deco, and Spanish Mission Revival and now comprise a full historic streetscape in one of the longest contiguous retail high streets in New Zealand.

Heretaunga Street connects Hastings with Havelock North where it goes under the name Havelock Road, and runs for 2.3 km (1.43 Miles) until it officially goes by the name Heretaunga Street; it then runs for another until it stops at Russell Street where the railway line runs through the city and through the city's fountain. Then the street continues for another as a pedestrian mall, where the road is a large public footpath, tree garden and café seating area. Then, from Railway Road for another as Heretaunga Street. Then at the area known as Stortford Lodge, at a road called Maraekākaho Road, a ring road then changes the name to Ōmāhu Road, where it continues for another where it reaches State Highway 50 at a place called Ōmāhu, hence the name of the street. In total Heretaunga Street runs for from Ōmāhu to Havelock North, but the road only runs for under its proper name. The road is mostly two lanes wide (one lane in each direction) and has a parking shoulders on either side. The legal road has an average width of approximately
The location where the road intersects with the railway line has for generations been regarded as the centrepiece of Hastings. It is here where the Hastings Clock Tower was built after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, and the short pedestrian mall is located here. The clock tower is registered as a Category I heritage building with Heritage New Zealand. A night market is held on Thursdays in the mall, organised by the Hastings City Business Association.

Heretaunga Street is Hastings' main street since the 1880s and is partially formed along a traditional Māori pathway connecting the Māori villages of Ōmāhu, Mākirikiri, and Karamū. The road was first formed in 1867 from the home of Francis Hicks, founder of the Township of Hastings 1873. Hicks had established a Store on the corner of Karamū Road and Heretaunga Street, which was the first Post Office in the early days of Hastings. In the 1870s formation of roads was overseen by the Heretaunga Road Board of the Hawke's Bay County Council, and was largely funded by European land owners, who were also the Board Members. The roads were first formed using fill from drains dug alongside the road, then laid with metal quarried from the beds of the Mākirikiri and Mākaramū anabranch rivers. The most radical change came about through the Hawke's Bay Earthquake of 3 February 1931 when the majority of buildings along Heretaunga Street were destroyed or damaged. Following the earthquake the main street was rebuilt predominantly in the architectural styles of Stripped Classicism, Art Deco, and Spanish Mission Revival. The rebuild following the earthquake between the years 1931 1936 was undertaken by competent local architects, and notable national architects Edmund Anscombe and Vivan Palmer Haughton. The main six blocks of the Central Business District are predominantly built during the 1920s 1930s and maintain a high level of authenticity, contributing to a vibrant mainstream with strong retail and hospitality trade.

Hawke's Bay has a lower population for its size and is not very prone to traffic problems. The gridiron plan of central Hastings lets traffic move easily. The pedestrian strip near the centre of the city makes parking down Heretaunga Street generally very challenging, as there is no major parking lot or a parking garage nearby. Heretaunga Street favours roundabouts, as there are 14 of them crossing intersections, compared to only two sets of traffic lights.

Heretaunga Street is known as the longest and most central of the main north–south arteries in Hastings, being the only one that goes straight from Flaxmere to Havelock North. The road is also the only one that runs through the middle of the Central Business Districts and is home to much of Hastings' commerce and trade, where at the centre of the Street, at the CBD it is a 2.2 kilometre shopping strip, and at the very centre in the town fountain and clock tower is a pedestrian only section where large stores meet cafés, restaurants and tall office blocks. This is generally known as the 'downtown' or 'central city' of Hastings.