Hector, New Zealand

Hector and Ngakawau are two lightly populated settlements located at the mouth of the Ngakawau River in the West Coast region of New Zealand. Both settlements are situated on State Highway 67 between Westport and Karamea. The 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings found that Hector and Ngakawau have a combined population of 300, a drop of 16% or 57 people since the 1996 census. This has dropped further in 2006 to 234 people. Despite a low population, many of the workers at New Zealand's largest open-cut coal mine at Stockton choose to live at these places and shuttles frequently operate between the two places.HectorHector sits on the northern side of the Ngakawau River's mouth, and is the more populous of the two settlements.Hector has adopted the endangered Hector's Dolphin as a town icon and is involved in Department of Conservation projects to protect the dolphin. The dolphins often play just offshore from Hector and attract visitors. Another local attraction is a country music museum.NgakawauNgakawau, the more economically important of the two settlements, stands on the southern side of the mouth of the Ngakawau River.