Meet the Jacksons, leading family in the town which takes their name, Jacksons Wharf, on Kaupapa Peninsula.
Ben is 40, a lawyer and ex-All Black. He is the golden boy who returns to the town after his father, Calder, dies and learns that Pop has left him the family pub in
his will. He is a widower, by the way, but there is more to his romantic past.
Frank is his younger brother and the town's copper. Make that sheriff. He resents Ben's status as favourite. He's a divorcee, now married to Mahina. She's a Rewiti - the Maori family who go back on the peninsula long before any Jacksons arrived.
Sister Maggie is the district's vet. She is clever and something of a hothead. Her farmer boyfriend is Brian Peek, son of campground owner Ronnie.
Baby brother Calvin is good-hearted, simple but with his own brand of intuition. He loves the sea and the local barmaid.
Betty Jackson is the clan matriarch and her sister, Kath Reilly, runs the local superette. A spinster, Auntie Kath worships Jonah Lomu and the Pope with equal devotion.
Ben's kids are teenage twins Jesse and Lucy and 9-year-old Charlie. Jesse is a cruiser and popular with babes. Lucy is introverted, sensitive and smart. Charlie is sensible, pragmatic and a computer kid.
Frank has a teenage daughter from his first marriage, Natalie, who is eager to grow up and get to the bright lights of the city. Mahina has a young daughter, Aroha, to her first mate, the no-good Danny.
Then there is Zane Rewiti, Mahina's nephew, an attractive lad living by his wits on the edge of the law.
And Larissa Enari, the half-Samoan barmaid with a bit of a reputation, is an outsider with some mysterious connection to the town.
Mason Keeler is a young constable from the city, now Frank's off-sider. He is a sincere young man with strong Christian values.
There, that should be about everybody you need to know for starters.
