[4] The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of Taihanga [a personal name]" for Ōtaihanga.

Located in Otaihanga is one of the Kāpiti Coast's most significant tourist attractions, the Southward Car Museum[4] on Otaihanga Road between the North Island Main Trunk railway to the west and State Highway 1 to the east.

It has one of the largest collections of cars in the Southern Hemisphere and contains other attractions such as heritage planes, and it has a large theatre.

[8] As Otaihanga is on the banks of the Waikanae River, it can be susceptible to flooding during storms and periods of high rainfall.

Serious flooding in the first week of January 2005 damaged 18 houses and necessitated the evacuation to higher ground of a number of residents by boat.

[11] Another parkland, Greendale Reserve, was formerly two rundown paddocks but it has been the subject of local volunteer efforts to revitalise its environment and restore native plants.

The two ends of the line met at Otaihanga and the last spike was driven at a public ceremony by Governor William Jervois.

Kapiti Line commuter services stop at Paraparaumu and the terminus at Waikanae.