It was once known for coalmining. Now it's one of the last bastions of the classic Kiwi crib. Nigel Benson visits the South Otago coast.
Further along the main street, Eddystone St, another sign proclaims Kai ''Black Gold Town'', in reference to its coal-mining history.
We are halfway along Eddystone St before we see the first person in the township. He is waterblasting a driveway.
Across the road, two caravans sit in the Kaitangata Riverside motor camp.
The town's only pub, the Bridge Tavern, is open, but empty, nearby.
''Our big nights for the locals are Fridays, when we have raffles and happy hour and a few bar snacks. Saturday nights are for the younger ones,'' publican Jen Keenan says.
A Kai Point Coal clock keeps time over the bar and a boar's head peers out from an adjacent wall.
''I think Kai should be a lot more popular, but it's not advertised enough.
People don't know what they're missing out on,'' she says.
''We've got a lot of characters here. We get a couple of twins who come in who we call `The Twaddles'. I don't even know their real names, but they come in and get two crates of flagons every week, which is about half a keg.''
''The father-in-law got us to come over,'' he says in a way that you're not completely sure whether it was a good thing.
''I came here and went to work at Davies Concrete [now Fulton Hogan], making concrete posts and fences and things. We also built the Dunedin Hospital. It was so busy in those days we never had a Christmas or New Year off in three years.''
His wife, Isabel, has been the Kaitangata Primary School cleaner for the past 37 years.
''Kaitangata's a good place. It's nice and easy and everybody keeps to themselves,'' Mr Nicol says.
''This is the country, I reckon. It's changed a bit over the years, though.
Half the people here are from Auckland now. But, they're still nice people.''
Despite living in Kaitangata for nearly 40 years, Mr Nicol's broad Scottish brogue still struggles with some of the local Maori place-names.
''I can pronounce them the way I want to, but not the way you want me to,'' he explains, with a laugh.
He is heading off to play bowls for the day, at a place that turns out to be Owaka.
''The bowls is enough to keep me busy. A lot of people around here like fishing, but I don't. I'd fall in, probably.''
At Measley Beach, 14km northeast of Kaitangata, the Kaitangata Fishing Club's annual, if belated, Christmas party is about to get under way.
Local dairy farmer Mark Haig has the day off and is setting up what can only be described as a significant drinks fridge.
A group of holidaying Dunedin children play around a cluster of 30 tractors, which are used to haul boats over the reef at low tide.
''We get quite a few blueys [blue cod] and groper out there,'' Mr Haig says.
The fishing club is expecting ''quite a few'' people for the day, he says.
Just up the coast, Chrystalls Beach is a hive of activity, with sand castle building and children playing on bikes and boogie boards.
Meanwhile, huge wood piles wait for a match on New Year's Eve.
The South Otago coast may be steeped in coal, but it has been polished into a diamond of a holiday spot.
