Rimutaka (New Zealand electorate) Rimutaka (New Zealand electorate) Rimutaka is an electorate returning one member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The current representative is Chris Hipkins, a member of the Labour Party who has represented the seat since 2008. Centred on Upper Hutt City, the western boundary of the Rimutaka electorate is defined by the Hutt River from Avalon and Naenae in the south, through Stokes Valley, Trentham and Upper Hutt, to Te Marua, Kaitoke, and Cloustonville in the north. Boundary changes in 2014 saw Rimutaka gain Naenae from the Hutt South electorate, while losing Belmont and Kelson to Hutt South. Population
Rimutaka Incline were the Tauwharenikau Route, Mr Sinclair’s Route, a coastal route and the Pakuratahi Route. While the government was conducting its surveys, Wellington Province Superintendent William Fitzherbert instructed his Provincial Engineer, Charles O’Neill, to investigate the possibility of a railway through the Rimutaka Valley (the route of the road between Featherston and Upper Hutt), with a tunnel through the dividing range. The survey was carried out between May and 21 July 1871, and O’Neill reported that a tunnel 130 chains (2.6 km) long would be required, with the line rising at 1 in 60 from the Pakuratahi to the tunnel then