The town is reached via a short detour west when travelling on State Highway One, the main North/South road.

Visitors to the monument's lookout are rewarded with panoramic views of the town and the district's green plains out towards the Pacific Ocean.

For roughly seventy years ending in 1953, the line ran beyond Waimate to Waihao Downs.

When the branch line was closed on 31 March 1966, Waimate became the first major town in New Zealand to lose its railway connection.

The district is a very productive agricultural area with a mix of pastoral, cropping, dairy farming, fruit and vegetable growing.

[7] Like much of rural New Zealand, Waimate suffered from an economic downturn in the 1980s, with the closure of the dairy factory and a number of sawmills.

For the last decade of the 20th century the biggest employers in the district were two furniture manufacturers, a vegetable processing plant and a factory making French fries and other potato products at Makikihi.

[13] St Patrick's School is a Catholic state-integrated full primary for years 1 to 8[16] with a roll of 30 students.

[21][13] A statue of Zealandia, a female allegorical representation of New Zealand similar to Great Britain's Britannia, is located just off the main street.

[26] St. Augustine's Anglican Church, located on John Street in Waimate, designed in 1872 by Benjamin Mountfort.