The Ngaruroro River is located in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It runs for a total of 164 kilometres southeast from the Kaweka Range, Kaimanawa Range and Ruahine Range and then east before emptying into Hawke Bay roughly half way between the cities of Napier and Hastings, near the town of Clive (drainage area 2,000 square kilometres above Tutaekuri River confluence). The river is mostly a single-thread channel down to Whanawhana (45 kilometers from the coast), flowing through a greywacke rock gorge. Below Whanawhana, the river opens to wide braided channel. The Ngaruroro shares a river mouth with the Tutaekuri, Clive River and Muddy Creek.