Papatawa is a rural community in the Tararua District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island.
[5] By the 1930s, the area had a dairy factory, a railway station, a county council yard, and a team of horses in stables.
Cheese from the dairy factory was transported to the railway station by horse and cart, and most locals took the train to Woodville to do shopping.
[6][7] Between 2010 and 2014, the NZ Transport Agency realigned and straightened the 4.5 kilometre stretch of State Highway 2, with a new intersection, rail crossing, over-bridge, passing lane and stream diversion.
[8] The $11 million project aimed to reduce crashes and separate local traffic from the 700 trucks that were using the road between Tararua and Hawke's Bay each day.