Exploring New Zealand

Masterton Area Guide

The farming service centre of Masterton is 100 kilometres to the north east of Wellington on the broad, flat alluvial Wairarapa plains, the Tararua mountain range forming a distant backdrop to the west.

Masterton is the largest town in the Wairarapa, and state highway 2 from Wellington leads through the light industrial outskirts in its south west, towards the retail heart of town and the Visitor Centre on Queen Street.

The best of Masterton lies to the east in the 32-hectare Queen Elizabeth Park, with its tall conifers and shady 120-year-old deciduous trees. This huge open green space is great for families, with its adventure playground and miniature ride-on train, which trundles around an island in the park's central lake. The French-style Cafe Cecille is housed in the gracious former tearooms with wide wooden verandas on three sides. In keeping with the royal theme of the park, the tearooms were built in 1912 to commemorate the coronation of King George V.

Opposite the park on Dixon Street is Aratoi, the Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, which opened in 2002. The plain wooden former Wesley Church next door has been turned into a venue for short-term exhibitions (see website for details) and is incorporated into the modern museum complex.

Masterton fills up with visitors for two major events each March, the Wairarapa Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and the international Golden Shears sheep-shearing competition. The five-day Balloon Fiesta in mid to late March makes fine spectator sport, and sees balloonists compete in various early morning challenges, including trying to dip their baskets into a lake. The fiesta's premier event is the Saturday evening Night Glow, when the balloons are lit against the night sky at Masterton's Solway Showgrounds.

The Golden Shears shearing competition is held in early March. At other times of the year you can visit the national shearing and wool handling museum, Shear Discovery, which is housed in two relocated historic woolsheds in Dixon Street, beside Aratoi.

The Wairarapa's coastal playground lies at spectacular Castlepoint, 65 kilometres east of Masterton, where the long stretches of sandy beach and sheltered lagoon offer good swimming, surfing, and fishing. Castlepoint was named in 1770 by the British explorer Captain Cook, who thought the 162-metre high Castle Rock resembled the battlements of a castle. The Lighthouse Walk (30 minutes return) is an easy board-walk over the limestone reef, where you can look for ancient fossils in the rock. Each March, the Castlepoint Beach Races are held, when there are horse races along the sandy beach.

Thirty kilometres to the north of Masterton lies the national wildlife centre, Pukaha Mount Bruce, where the Department of Conservation runs a captive breeding programme for threatened native bird species. Walking tracks lead through remnants of an ancient native forest, past a series of aviaries where visitors can see some of New Zealand's rarest birds. A closed-circuit camera is trained on the birds' nests in the breeding season between October and March, and endangered kiwi can be seen in the nocturnal house.