The name ‘Te Hāwera’, which means ‘the burnt place’, came about many years ago following an incident between two feuding Māori tribes in the area. One tribe surprised another in the dead of night and burned the village to the ground ensuring that there were no survivors and so the area became known as ‘the burnt place’.

After that fire seemed to be a feature in the history of Hawera.  With the arrival of the European settlers the name came into use simply as Hawera and the district continued to live up to its name. In 1884 a hotel was razed; 5 July 1888 saw another large fire when five business premises were destroyed and in 1912 a particularly disastrous fire razed a large portion of the main street area.

The Hawera Water Tower was completed in January 1914 and within weeks an earthquake caused the tower to list 54 inches to the south. This was remedied by anchoring a large block of reinforced concrete to the lower side and by then filling the tanks with water the list reversed to less than 3 inches. 

This is now a viewing tower (tanks removed) and offers the best 360 views of Hawera and region.

My other recommendations are to visit the Tawhiti Museum and the beautiful King Edward Park and Gardens which were started on a 28 acre plot in 1875.

The park has a rose garden, many statues, the Hawera Observatory , a Chinese Garden, The Victoria Cross Garden and so much more.