Matamau is a small village, on a ridge between the Matamau and Whakaruatapu Streams, tributaries of the Manawatū River, in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. State Highway 2 and the Palmerston North–Gisborne line run through the village. It has a rare surviving example of a basic railway station, a cafe, developed from the former post office and store about 1969, and a truck repair workshop. Until the 1870s it was densely forested, but most of the trees were felled and milled by 1910 and replaced by farms.