Otago Goldfields Heritage Trail

Take a journey back through time and follow the trails that the miners took in their quest for gold. 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 gold mining equipment and machinery. There are also deep mine shafts and tunnels, impressive sluiced cliffs and tailings.

The Otago Goldfields Park brings together more than twenty sites, which are managed by the Department of Conservation. Try your hand at gold panning, or follow the goldfields trail from Dunedin or Palmerston through to Queenstown and beyond.

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.