Eketahuna is a small rural service town, the most southerly in the Tararua District in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand, but is considered to be in northern Wairarapa.

It was called Mellenskov by the Scandinavian immigrants (meaning 'Heart of the Forest'), but was renamed soon after its founding. Eketahuna was originally within the southern part of the Forty Mile Bush.

Eketahuna is considered by some to be the stereotypical rural New Zealand town, and is occasionally used in conversation to represent "the real New Zealand". The 2001 census recorded Eketahuna's population at 579.

New Zealanders colloquially refer to the town of Eketahuna the way other English speakers refer to Timbuktu, i.e., the middle of nowhere, "the sticks", the end of the world. Likewise, Eketahuna is a booming metropolis compared to the mythical town of Waikikamukau (pronounced "Why-kick-a-moo-cow").

The Mount Bruce national wildlife centre and bird sanctuary is located to the south of the town.

Eketahuna means, literally, “to run aground on a sandbank”, and it is said that Maori canoes could not proceed beyond this part of the Makakahi River because of shoals.

The name of the town, when spoken, sounds like a sentence in Afrikaans which translates to "I have a chicken". This is a source of amusement to immigrant Afrikaans-speaking South Africans in New Zealand.

A pictorical history of Eketahuna can be viewed here.