The town of Kaikohe is 10.4 km (6.5 mi) to the west, and the Bay of Islands is a short drive to the east.

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of thermal waters" for Ōhaeawai.

[3] Nearby is the site of the bloody Battle of Ohaeawai fought at Pene Taui's pā (fort) during the Flagstaff War in 1845.

The therapeutic mercurial waters of the minor health spa of Ngawha Springs are in a small thermal area to the west, where Northland prison is situated.

[4] Taiamai was the name given to a large boulder of volcanic rock situated about 400 m (quarter mile) south east of the Ohaeawai Hotel.

The outcome of the Battle of Ohaeawai is considered to be a defeat of the British colonial forces.

[6] In August 2018 the battleground area around the church, including the urupā (cemetery), was added to the Heritage New Zealand list as a wāhi tapu, a place sacred to the Ngāti Rangi hapū and of historic significance.

Cowan (1922) asserts that the site of the church (and earlier pā) is the true Ohaeawai and the European township which has appropriated the name should properly be known as Taiamai.

[8] In June 2019, the name of the locality was officially gazetted as Ōhaeawai by the New Zealand Geographic Board.

The results were 64.3% European (Pākehā); 53.1% Māori; 3.5% Pasifika; 2.1% Asian; 0.7% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.8% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

The results were 70.3% European (Pākehā); 45.8% Māori; 3.1% Pasifika; 2.2% Asian; 0.5% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 1.9% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

[17][18] In October 2020, the Government committed $499,093 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the Parawhenua Marae, creating 10 jobs.