It stretches from Māhia Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Kidnappers / Te Kauwae-a-Māui in the southwest, a distance of some 90 kilometres (56 mi).

Captain James Cook, sailing in HMS Endeavour, entered the bay on 12 October 1769.

After exploring it, he named it for Sir Edward Hawke, First Lord of the Admiralty, on 15 October 1769, describing it as some 13 leagues (about 40 miles (64 km)) across.

[2] This part of the New Zealand coast is subject to tectonic uplift, with the land being raised out of the sea.

Several medium-sized towns are located in the immediate surrounds of the bay, including Wairoa at the mouth of the Wairoa River and its flood plain in the north, the so-called 'twin cities' of Napier and Hastings in the south, and the town of Havelock North slightly further inland.