Ngarara lies directly between Waikanae township and the coastal settlement of Waikanae Beach, to the north of the Waikanae River framed strongly between Hemi Matenga Reserve on the scarpland and Kapiti Island. It is currently run as a 270 hectare family farm, grazing cattle and sheep.
The farm makes up a large proportion of the land earmarked by the local territorial authority (Kapiti Coast District Council) as ‘having potential for residential development’.
The farm is largely ‘sand country’ – rolling dunes covered in pasture and pine plantation. Some pockets of original coastal podocarp forest remain. High ridges look across to Kapiti Island, while the dips and hollows hold drained peaty swamps, as well as enduring wetlands. In the east the farmland rises slightly, relating more strongly to the Waikanae escarpment and the Tararua foothills than to the sea.
Ngarara is crossed by two streams: Waimeha to the south and Ngarara to the north. Riparian planting on the banks of the Ngarara Stream is run as a pilot project with Greater Wellington, the regional council.
Almost one third of the farm is already managed as ecological reserve, including the nationally significant Kawakahia wetland. The farm lies next to Nga Manu Nature Reserve, and on the direct flight route between Kapiti Island Wildlife Reserve and Hemi Matenga Scenic Reserve in the foothills of the Tararua Ranges.
Ngarara Farm is also bordered by the Waikanae Golf Course and by the public open space of Waikanae Park.
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The social history of the land of the Ngarara farm area is diverse. It has been occupied for centuries, first by iwi such as Muaupoko, then more recently by Te Ati Awa and Ngati Toa who dominated this area from the 1820s. In the late nineteenth century Wiremu Te Kakakura Parata (Wi Parata) gained title to a block including Ngarara. The existing farm, once considerably bigger, has been owned by two European farming families since the 1920s, the Fields, and the Smiths (current owners).
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