In summer, Waikaia's population swells as holidaymakers visit. There’s a pub, a shop and café, a hall and a rugby club, a school with two classrooms, a golf course and a campground, but most of the houses in the tiny village are holiday homes. It’s the kind of community where everyone knows everyone else. The valley is home to high country stations – Glenaray Station on one side, Argyle and Glencairn stations on the other, with smaller sheep and beef farms spread across the valley floor and into the foothills. The usually sedate Waikaia River meanders down through lush farmland, and is a world-renowned trout fishery.