Twelve New Zealand Cities and Towns from Whangarei to Invercargill

Whangarei is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. Captain James Cook sighted its harbour in 1769 and named the bay for the bream he caught there, and the Hundertwasser Art Centre opened here in 2022.

Hamilton sits inland on the Waikato River and is the largest urban centre of the Waikato region. It was established as an agricultural service hub by European militia-settlers after the 1864 invasion of Waikato, and has since added education and research, with about 40,000 tertiary students.

Gisborne lies on the east coast where the Waimata, Taruheru and Turanganui rivers meet. Cook made his first New Zealand landing nearby in 1769, and the settlement known as Turanga was renamed in 1870 for colonial secretary William Gisborne to avoid confusion with Tauranga.

Hastings is the Hawke Bay city about 18 kilometers south of Napier. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on 3 February 1931 killed 93 people here, and the downtown was rebuilt in Art Deco and Spanish Mission styles; the Heretaunga Plains now grow stone fruit, kiwifruit and wine.

New Plymouth is the principal city of the Taranaki region. The first organized settlers arrived on the William Bryan on 31 March 1841, the town became a fortified garrison in 1860 and 1861, and it was declared a city in 1949; dairy farming and the oil and gas industries shape its economy.

Whanganui stands at the mouth of the Whanganui River, the longest navigable waterway in the country. It was the New Zealand Company second settlement after Wellington, founded in 1840, and was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2021.

Masterton is the administrative center of Masterton District in the Wairarapa, about 100 kilometers northeast of Wellington. The Small Farms Association led by Joseph Masters founded it in 1854, and it hosts the annual Golden Shears sheep shearing competition.

Lower Hutt occupies the lower half of the Hutt Valley on the eastern shore of Wellington Harbour, and is known in Maori as Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai. It is the sixth most populous city in New Zealand, with 114,200 people over 376.4 square kilometers in June 2025.

Porirua lies at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast around the two arms of Porirua Harbour, which its Maori name Pari-rua describes. State planning grew it from the 1940s as a satellite city for Wellington, and by 2023 its population was 26.5 percent Pasifika and 23.0 percent Maori.

Timaru is a port city in South Canterbury, about 157 kilometers southwest of Christchurch. It is a major cargo port and the second largest fishing port in New Zealand, and the lava flows of the extinct Mount Horrible volcano give its streets their rolling character.

Queenstown is a resort town on the northwestern shore of Lake Wakatipu, a long S shaped lake formed by glacial processes. It is a major snow sports centre with four primary ski fields and is known for bungy jumping, jet boating and mountain biking.

Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand and the commercial centre of Southland. It lies on the Southland Plains about 18 kilometres north of Bluff, amid rich farmland near Fiordland National Park and the Catlins coast.