This is a detail from a map — click for a larger view — produced by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company in 1886 after it had completed its line from Wellington to Longburn south of Palmerston North.

It had stations at Paikakariki (now Paekakariki), Waikanae and Otaki, but not Paraparaumu as there was no settlement there then.  In fact there was very little at Waikanae, either, but there was some development at Otaki.

The only road linking the Kapiti Coast towns then was the beach. The hill roads to Paekakariki and to Waikanae through the Akatawara range existed, but would have been elementary.