Summary: Waikouaiti is a small village and seaside resort thirty-two miles north of Dunedin. One mile from the township is the beautiful beach stretching for three miles from the headland of Matanaka in the north to the Merton River at the southern extremity. No one who walks the beach at the present time would realise that this was the scene of a seige during the Maori Wars in the South Island, or that the beach and the banks of the Merton River was the site of a whaling station from 1835 to 1845. What is now called Waikouaiti is not the Waikouaiti of early days, which was the name given to the whaling station at the mouth of the Waikouaiti River. The name of the river has also been changed to the Merton River. The word Waikouaiti has been spelt in various ways. Some maintain it should be Wai-kau-iti (water become little) or Wai-ko-wai-iti (water, the end of the little stream). Tamati Parata, an old chief at Puketeraki, near Waikouaiti considers that Waikouaiti (properly Waikowai-iti) means the end (Ko) of the water or stream (wai iti running into water or sea (wai). The name Merton is now given to this locality at the mouth of the little stream, now the Merton River. The present spelling Waikouaiti was fixed in 1843, but before that date it was spelt Whikowhiti, Whykowite, Waikoaite, Whykowat, Waikooti, Waikowaiti, and Whycauity.