Hutt Valley

The Hutt Valley, often called 'The Hutt,' is a large, flat area in the valley of the Hutt River in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. It is named after Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zealand Company in early colonial times.

The Hutt River flows through the valley along the path of an active geologic fault. This fault continues southward and helps lift up the Southern Alps in the South Island. Because of this, the land rises quickly to the west of the river. To the east, there are two floodplains. The higher one lies between 15 and 22 kilometers from where the river meets the sea. Past this point, the river passes through a narrow, steep gorge near Taitā before opening into a wide plain near where it flows into Wellington Harbour.

The Waiwhetu Aquifer is an important underground water source. It begins when water from the Hutt River seeps underground near Taitā and then flows beneath the Hutt Valley and out under Wellington Harbour.

Human settlement

Some early Māori nations, or groups, of the region were Ngāi Tara, Muaūpoko, Rangitāne, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, and Ngāti Ira. These groups came from the sons of Whātonga, Taraika and Tautoki-ihu-nui-a-Whātonga, who moved through the lower North Island and some settled in the Hutt Valley. The name Heretaunga is often used for the Hutt Valley, coming from the name of a special home of Whātonga at Nukutaurua village.

In 1846, there was fighting between Māori tribes and the British, called the Hutt Valley Campaign.

The Hutt River, also called Te Awa Kairangi, was an important path for Māori. There was a trail connecting Wellington Harbour and the Wairarapa over the Remutaka Range and through the Pākuratahi river. Before the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake, big Māori boats could travel as far as the Pākuratahi river, and European ships could almost reach Silverstream up the valley.

The lower valley has the city of Lower Hutt, managed by the Hutt City Council, while the nearby, bigger but less crowded city of Upper Hutt has its centre on a smaller plain above the Taita Gorge. The valley is a major area close to Wellington, used for manufacturing and heavy industry, schools, fun places, and camps for travelers.

Petone, on the Wellington Harbour shoreline, was first planned as the place to build the city of Wellington by the New Zealand Company. But because the place was often flooded by the river, the settlement moved to Wellington. A small community stayed at Petone because the whole valley was good for farming.

Almost all of the valley was cleared and turned into fields or gardens before it became urban in the 20th century. A tiny part of the old podocarp forest is kept in Barton's Bush in Upper Hutt.