Upper Hutt

Located 30km northeast of Wellington, Upper Hutt is the center of the northern part of the Hutt Valley, which runs from northeast to southwest and ends at the port of Wellington. The valley widens between the Rimutaka and Akatarawa, forming a wide plain of 2.5 kilometers, then becomes closer 9km away, at the Taita Gorge, which separates Upper Hutt from the nearby city, Lower Hutt. Much of the urban area of Upper Hutt is located on the same plain. There is a smaller plain, north of the Kaitoke gorge, but it is undeveloped.

It is the second city in New Zealand by land area at 540 km2, the first being Dunedin. It extends from the foot of the Rimutaka north-east to the valley and the mountains Akatarawa are situated north and northwest and almost reach the Kapiti Coast near Paekakariki.

Upper Hutt is located in a region called Orongomai by the river that gives it its name called Heretaunga (now known as a suburb of the city). The first inhabitants of the region are Maori iwi of Ngai Tara. Several other iwi controlled the region before 1840. Upon the arrival of European settlers it was part of the iwi rohe of Te Atiawa. The first European to live in what is now Upper Hutt was Richard Barton, who moved to Trentham in 1841 in the region now called Barton’s Bush. He divided his lands and reserved a large part as a park.

The first railway line linking Upper Hutt in Wellington was completed on 1st February 1877. The line extended to Kaitoke in the north of the Hutt Valley on 1st January 1878. It crossed the Rimutaka and reached Featherston in the Wairarapa. Upper Hutt was part of Hutt County in 1877. The Town Board was founded April 24th 1908. Upper Hutt was made into a Borough on February 26th 1926 and into a City on May 2nd 1966.