The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of feast of the winds" for Ōkaihau.

[3] Ōkaihau was a Māori village when the settlers arrived on the ridge which stands between Lake Ōmāpere and the Hokianga harbour.

The results were 66.4% European (Pākehā), 45.1% Māori, 9.8% Pasifika, 1.6% Asian, and 2.5% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander".

[5] Ōkaihau statistical area covers 147.68 km2 (57.02 sq mi)[1] to the north and west of Lake Ōmāpere.

With Ōkaihau being on the main State Highway north (SH1) it became the transshipping point for goods from rail onto road and vice versa.

For the Ōkaihau Branch's first few decades of operation, passengers were catered for by mixed trains that carried freight as well and ran to slow timetables.

These mixed services offered connections with the Northland Express passenger train that ran thrice weekly between Auckland and Opua, but in November 1956, the carriage train was replaced by a railcar service run by RM class 88 seaters.

The northern terminus was changed from Opua to Ōkaihau, and the railway line rose in prominence and importance.

However, declining freight volumes due to deregulation of the transport industry in 1983 meant that the line did not last much longer, and it closed on 1 November 1987.

There have been calls and proposals to reopen the Ōkaihau Branch to carry forestry traffic but to date nothing has yet come to fruition.

The settlers, through Mr. McCloud the M.P for the Bay of Islands at the time arranged to provide the timber for a school and the government would erect it and pay the teacher in full.

Due to the large influx of workers on the proposed railway line to Kaitaia the Public Works School became necessary.

Further expansion took place in 1963 when a separate Infant Block was erected across the road from the Main School.

In 1973 the High School was granted Form 1–7 (Year 7–13) status and became Okaihau College with Mr. Laurenson as first principal.

[13] At the same time a full primary school was completed around the Infant Block with Mr. N. Thomson becoming the first headmaster.

The name "Ōkaihau" is a Māori name meaning "Feast of the winds", which is relevant to the location of the area on a ridge over 200 m above sea level.

This part of New Zealand was originally a dense wooded landscape and even today huge old trees such as pūriri are found in the area of the school.