Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings on the banks of the Tukituki River.

The town is close to the site of a Maori pa, from which it gets its name. The name is said to mean water of pukerau, pukerau being a type of fungus. The town was the site of the first church in inland Hawke's Bay, built in 1847. Much of the town dates from a model village built by local land-owner H.R.Russell in 1867.

At the 2001 census, the town had a population of 3,912, a drop of 2.2 percent since the 1996 census.