Ōtaki Beach

 

PHOTO: Surfers at Ōtaki Beach

Ōtaki used to be the unfashionable end of Kāpiti, but the town is blossoming as city escapees, home-based business people and families move in. A recent “blow-in”, Sharon Stephenson takes stock of her new home town.

Ōtaki begins somewhere near a narrow, two-lane bridge, in the shadow of a giant concrete plant that spits out rivers of grey. It ends north of the main roundabout, on alluvial plains so flat it’s as though a plasterer has skimmed the earth.

“If you were writing Ōtaki’s dating profile, you’d probably describe it as ‘experienced’,” says Jim, battling a southerly to walk his dog on Ōtaki Beach. “It’s been around the block a few times and has the stretch marks to prove it. It’s not exactly pretty, but it is strangely seductive.”

So seductive, in fact, that five months ago, we gave up our home in inner-city Wellington to move to a 6ha lifestyle block in the shadow of the Tararua Range. We’d always wanted to live with more grass than asphalt, to grow our own food far from noisy neighbours. If you can work from home, we reasoned, why not do so somewhere warmer and nicer, under big skies where the only sound is the wind tickling the kauri trees?

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