April 1890.

Shipwrecked and orphaned on New Zealand's wild west coast, eleven year old David Campbell is taken under the wing of a kindly widow on her rugged, remote sheep station, where he grows into a strong, quiet young man. He flourishes in the idyllic community of Wairata, where he finds friendship, love, and belonging. But war has raised its ugly head in the British Empire and David finds himself dragged unwittingly into the South African conflict, known as the Boer War, where all of their lives will be forever changed.

Brutal and realistic, Wairata is a story of early New Zealand and the people who made the country what it is today.