Scenic Highlights

Top Central Otago scenic highlights

Central Otago is a place of dramatic scenery. Discover schist mountains studded with tors and vast valleys that were scoured by glaciers during the ice age. The climatic extremes repaint the landscape with every season.

Selected highlights at a glance

A haunting look at the gold-mining past - St Bathans

St Bathans, in the farthest reaches of Central Otago, owes its origins to the mining era. Today it is a tiny town with only two surviving businesses - the post office and 'The Vulcan' hotel. The hotel, which is said to be haunted, dates back to 1882; the post-office was opened in 1909.

Little has changed around St Bathans since the gold rush days, so it's easy to imagine the town in its hey-day. Other old buildings include the Anglican Church (1882) and the stone schoolhouse. The Blue Lake (named for its distinctive blue colour caused by the minerals in the water) was man-made by miners digging away at a large hill until all that was left was a 68 metre deep hole. When the mining stopped, the hole filled with water to form the lake. Today the lake is a popular and unique setting for swimming and jet skiing.

The man-made fascination of Clyde Dam and Lake Dunstan

Clyde Dam is the largest concrete gravity dam in New Zealand. More than one million cubic metres of concrete were used in its construction. Controversy surrounded the building of the dam, which saw a number of orchards and houses removed from the Cromwell Gorge to allow the flooding of the river valley. However the lake formed by the dam, Lake Dunstan, is very beautiful. The lake extends from the historical township of Clyde through the Cromwell Gorge to Cromwell township, with one arm travelling up the Kawarau River to Bannockburn and the other widening out over the Lowburn Flats. Appreciate the scenery from a kayak, jet boat or eco-tour. Rainbow and brown trout live in the lake, and the fishing season never ends.

All along the rail trail

The fantastically scenic route from the Otago coast to Central Otago, used by early pioneers and gold prospectors, formed the basis for a railway, which has since become New Zealand's only rail trail.

The Otago Central Rail Trail winds 150 kilometres from Clyde down to Middlemarch on the Strath Taieri. Travellers are able to walk, bike or ride horseback along the trail, which includes over 60 bridges. At various points you can break your journey to appreciate the big sky, fascinating rock formations and amazing sense of history. Be sure to also sample the legendary local hospitality.

Centuries before the first prospectors arrived, the Central Otago region was a hunting ground for Maori. Tribes travelled through the region during the summer and autumn. They hunted eels, waterfowl and birds, such as tui, pigeon, kaka and the plentiful (at the time) moa. Evidence of early Maori hunting parties has been found at several archaeological sites.

The old bridge piers - a monument to early civil engineering

The Old Bridge Piers are the remains of the original Alexandra Bridge, which was completed in 1882 at a cost of £16,111 ($32,222). This bridge crossed the mighty Clutha River, New Zealand's largest river by volume and second longest at 338 kilometres. The piers were constructed of schist stone quarried locally. The very first method of crossing the river was a packing case on a cable. This method was superseded by a punt, which ferried people across the river. The name Clutha is taken from Scotland's Clyde River - Clutha being Gaelic for Clyde.

To the Maori people the river was Mata-au (surfaced current). A giant named Kopuwai and his pack of two-headed dogs were said to have lived above the Mata-au on the Old Man Range behind Alexandra. This range is known to Maori as Kopuwai.