[3] The small village, has a school, general store, cafe and pub, and is located just off State Highway 2.

[4] The town was founded in 1874, during a subdivision of Henry Tiffen's 5140-hectare Homewood farming estate.

[6] On 1 April 1910 the Post Department changed the name from Kaikora North to Otane,[7] to avoid confusion with Kaikōura.

[10] In July 2020, the name of the locality was officially gazetted as Ōtāne by the New Zealand Geographic Board,[11] having previously often been written as Otane.

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of a man" for Ōtāne.

[17] Initially the township was served by mail coaches running between Napier and Waipukurau.

[15] However, in 1876, the Minister for Public Works, Edward Richardson, attributed delays only to unexpectedly heavy land claims and floods.

S Tracey and Allen, of Napier, tendered £7,989 for track for the Paki Paki-Waipawa length in September 1875.

[22] By March 1876 Justin McSweeney had built a platform and station, McLeod & Co a 5th class stationmaster's house and Joseph Sowry a goods shed and water tank.

In 1966 a new 500 sq ft (46 m2) station was built of concrete blocks, with an aluminium roof[9] on the same site.