Naseby Sluicings (Photo: John Douglas)

Much remains to evoke the spirit of those golden days. The dry Central Otago climate has helped to protect mud and stone buildings, examples of mining equipment and machinery, deep mine shafts and tunnels, and impressive sluiced cliffs. Tailings, in many forms, remain to tell the story of mining in this harsh climate.

The Otago Goldfields Park brings together more than 20 widely scattered and diverse sites, which are managed by the Department of Conservation. These sites have been carefully chosen to provide a representative range of what remains of the goldfields sites and authentic field relics. At any one of these sites you will see one or more of the four Park themes of: Gold Discovery; Access to the Goldfields; Mining Techniques and Life on the Goldfields.

In towns born of the gold days you will find colourful old pubs, restaurants in restored stone buildings, nostalgia-filled museums, monuments, rebuilt mining settlements and replica shops - all recreating the character of the gold days.

Some of the coaching hotels dating back to the miners’ days include: Dansey’s Pass, Chatto Creek, the Vulcan (formerly Ballarat, St Bathans), the Ancient Briton and Royal at Naseby, Dunstan (Clyde), Cardrona, Eichardts (Queenstown) and Stanleys (Macraes). The old Speargrass Hotel is now Fruitlands Gallery, the old White Horse Hotel at Becks has been restored, and the Queensberry Inn is now a delightful Bed and Breakfast.

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