Toeing the northern boundary of Wairarapa, a picturesque, driftwood-dotted stretch of sand and history, Akitio rejoices in its isolation. By Simon Burt. Photographs by Pete Monk.

In 1957, writer James K Baxter travelled to the seaside settlement of Akitio on an Education Department commission. Although his report Akitio: A Country School and its Community painted a rosy picture, Baxter appears not to have fully enjoyed his stay – the poem he wrote at the same time, At Akitio, is full of dark images, referring to “this barbarian coast” and to disease, drownings and having “never made anything out of anything”.

Akitio actually makes a great deal out of being just that little bit harder to get to than its neighbours to the south, Castlepoint and Riversdale. Rugged landscape, resourceful people. They are close, brought together by family and circumstance. Community is evident wherever you walk, whoever you talk to. A dozen people in the Boating Club bar, Friday night – more than half the permanent beach population – each offer weekend labour and equipment. Tractors and time are shared for boat launching. The Community Centre committee holds another meeting to discuss fundraising, marketing, and hall maintenance.

The hall was built in the early 1990s when the original landing shed – a building for many purposes, harbouring myriad memories – was dismantled. The hall was built behind the school, with free farmers' labour and a few subcontractors funded from a Lotteries grant. It was built for the school, and to replace the landing shed for community activities. The school closed in 2014, its roll four children (including the teaching principal's own two), but the hall lives on as a full-facility venue with dormitory accommodation, attracting wedding parties, birthdays, and family reunions.

North to Cape Turnagain. Photo: Pete Monk.

Along the beach at the river mouth, three heritage homesteads – Marainanga, Moanaroa and Akitio – stand proudly in the landscape. In days gone by their owners and workers supplied young customers for the thriving school. The grand Akitio house was subdivided from its namesake station some years ago; the others remain home to the farmers who tend their black and white mobs – not the Friesians popular for their milk, but the mighty Angus and sturdy Romney which are the main source of income here, a century-plus since the timber mill closed.

This is no life of aristocratic leisure, as Baxter mused in his poem. It is steep land – summer dry, winter wild. In a bid to diversify their income stream, and for a bit of social variety, Cec and Matt Radford have turned the heritage-listed shearers' quarters of their 2,600-acre property Marainanga (“plentiful whitebait”) into stylish accommodation. The 1880s homestead sports a sizeable conference room, and the couple's hospitality experience is well exercised when corporate or private groups stay. Cec has significant family history here – her grandmother was born in the house – and before buying Marainanga back into the family in 2016, the Radfords farmed in the district for eight years.

Fiona Ramsden runs the 3,000 acre family farm Ware Ware (“lost” or “forgotten”), where she grew up, a few miles up the road. Brother Hugh lives at the beach and runs Moanaroa (“long seashore”), with its 11.3 kilometres of coastline, alongside parents Dan and Barbara who upsized to the homestead in 2007. Fiona, too, has added an accommodation offering, Coast Road Backpackers, the old quarters having received a creative makeover courtesy of her former career in interior design. Like her cousin Cec Radford, Fiona is on the fundraising team for the Community Centre – they're planning a walk/ride/trek over their respective properties in March 2020.

Other significant and well known stations – including, of course, Akitio itself – operate in the county which is roughly defined by Coast Road to Pongaroa, River Road to Waione and the part of Route 52 connecting them.

While farming is the mainstay of present-day Akitio, it wasn't always on its own. For decades, hardy commercial fishers launched their boats through Baxter's “choir of breakers” to gather crayfish, cod and tarakihi. According to Akitio Boat Club stalwart Di Fergus, there have been six or seven commercials here in recent times but there has been a bit of a drift to Castlepoint where launching conditions are more reliable.

Di has run the bar for ten years. The Club's more than 300 members live mainly in Dannevirke and Palmerston North; many have baches on the beach or overlooking it. The handful of locals who patronise the club over cooler months swells in the summer, the bar takings welcomed by the treasurer. Fishing competitions attract the crowds. 'Fish Akitio' is big – 46 boats entered last year and many more tried their luck in the land-based section. There are separate competitive events for ladies and kids too.

Right next to the Boat Club is Akitio Camping Ground & Store, but at the time of writing – and to the consternation of the settlement – the store is no more. Long-time lessee Cathy Whitta gave it all she had but it was time for a break, for some family time. She, like Di Fergus and everyone we spoke to, hopes someone will take it over and continue the service enjoyed by locals and visitors. By general consensus, Cathy's fish'n'chips were the best for miles.

Camping at Akitio is restricted to the privately-owned Camping Ground where seafront tent sites mean exactly that and campervans are welcome too. It also provides facilities and services for a couple of dozen permanent cabins and caravans. Sleepy and serene off-season, heaving with holiday makers when the sun is higher in the sky, it's as kiwi as it gets.

Akitio – splendidly isolated. Photo: Pete Monk.

Just a couple of years after James K Baxter's visit, a 16-year-old shepherd started work at Wakawahine Station. Since then, master stockman Lloyd Newland has spent his life living and working on the properties around here – Marainanga, Branscombe, Mangahuia, Brooklands, and back to Marainanga. Home to Kororoa then to Wairakau, and Akitio for 14 years. Taumata for a decade and finally Glencoe from where he “retired” five years ago at age 69.

River Cottage was Moanaroa's head shepherd's house. The Ramsdens built new houses for their staff a while back so the cottage was sold, home first to a fisherman, now to Lloyd and his wife Denise. Conceding that he doesn't know when to stop, Lloyd still walks the surrounding hills fixing dripping troughs, pitching in with the mustering, offering his lifetime's experience.

Lloyd remembers the little cottage on the point, still standing, whose occupant used to drive bullock carts carrying wool, and when the only other place on the beach was a boarding house. He recalls Ferry Reserve where people camped, waiting to be floated over the river. And when a wooden bridge was built, running stock over it to be loaded from the Akitio yards.

He recalls fundraising for the hall, dances after Owhanga horse sports, the New Year's Eve ball at the landing shed, his two boys attending the school, the sense of community. All at Akitio.