Cromwell Heritage Precinct

When the Clyde Dam was built in the 1980s, Lake Dunstan flooded the Cromwell Gorge and with it the original centre of Cromwell - about three hundred properties, the old main street and the confluence of the Clutha and Kawarau rivers where the two colours met. Some of the most significant stone buildings were dismantled and reassembled on higher ground beside the new lake, and that is the Heritage Precinct: a short row of restored 1860s stone and timber buildings, now holding galleries, craft shops, a bakery and a couple of eating places, with the water immediately below where the town used to be. It is honest about being a relocation rather than a survival, which some visitors find affecting and others find hollow. Cromwell's other landmark is the giant fruit sculpture at the highway junction, marking the stone-fruit orchards the district runs on. The Bannockburn sluicings and wineries are close.

What you actually see

• The relocated buildings - 1860s stone moved uphill before the flooding.
• Lake Dunstan - covering the original town centre below.
• The galleries and shops - what the precinct is used for now.
• The giant fruit - the orchard sculpture at the highway junction.

When to go

Any season; April for autumn colour. Summer is very hot. Shops keep daytime hours and some close in winter.

Honest expectations

The buildings were moved here - this is a reconstruction on a new site, not an intact old town. It is small, two hours at most. Some shops close out of season.

Nearby

Bannockburn's sluicings and wineries are south; Clyde and the dam are down the gorge.