A Golden Era

The tiny town of Naseby on the edge of the Maniototo Plain has shaken the dust from its gold-mining feet and attached them to pedals and indoor ice in a new fever of activity tourism.

Words: Sue Moody  Photographs: Sharron Bennett

BLAME IT ON THE RAIL TRAIL. Since DOC, in partnership with a local trust, ripped up the disused rails and turned 150km of Central Otago railway line into a free-to-all-comers cycling and walking path in February 2000, baby boomers have been busting to get their butts on bikes and their lungs full of the famously fresh Central air while enjoying the awe-inspiring scenery of the land dubbed Big Sky Country.

Central Otago painter Grahame Sydney has given us a pantheon of images of the magical, majestic hills as well as the iconic abandoned Wedderburn station. So now more than 10,000 Rail-Trail tourists a year are lifting their eyes unto the hills … and very much enjoying the view. Local hospitality providers and businesses have their tills ringing to the tune of several million dollars on the back of the Rail Trail’s success, bringing a new lease on life to tiny hamlets that were surely, slowly sinking into dusty gold-forsaken insignificance.

Naseby is one. Population 150 (on a good day – many Naseby-ites work in Alexandra and even Dunedin) that swells over the holiday months to around 3000. Its housing stock consists of ancient cottages, homely cribs and clusters of caravans. The main street is a perfectly preserved slice of colonial history, site of one of Otago’s biggest and most successful gold-mining settlements. There’s gold history everywhere and if the gold dust has long since settled and evaporated, the legacy of hard-working, hard-living miners lives on, alongside a heritage of buildings and businesses that depend on the new gold – tourism.

At the picturesque Royal Hotel, proudly erected in the tent town of nascent Naseby in 1863 to satisfy the thirst of the earliest rush of gold miners and currently dubbed “best grub in the goldfields”, publicans Barbara Chisholm and Chris Spears are passionate promoters of the local history and attractions. It’s still Speights country. Ads have been made using the pub’s handsomely refurbished 1879 façade and its colourful characters. “Local people don’t drink wine,” laments Barbara, though the Royal’s wine list offers a sampling of the renowned Central Otago pinot noirs.

Print

12next ›last »