The town of Featherston is in the south of the North Island of New Zealand, east of Wellington, just beyond the Rimutaka Tunnel , in the South Wairarapa District. Its 2001 population was 2325.

The town is lcated on the eastern side of the Rimutaka Range close to the nortern shore of Lake Wairarapa. It is 35 kilometres southwest of Masterton and 25 kilometres east of Upper Hutt.

The town gained notoriety when Japanese prisoners-of-war rioted in the nearby camp in 1943.