Ophir

Ophir was a gold town of more than a thousand people in the 1860s and is now home to around fifty people, which is why so much of it survives - there was never any pressure to redevelop. The main street has a row of schist and mudbrick buildings including the post office of 1886, still operating as a post office and thought to be among the oldest continuously working in the country, along with the courthouse, the old gaol and Blacks Hotel. The Daniel O'Connell Bridge, a 1880 suspension bridge over the Manuherikia, carries the road in. Ophir's other distinction is climatic: the Central Otago basin records the country's temperature extremes, and Ophir recorded minus 21.6 degrees in July 1995, the second-lowest official temperature in New Zealand, while summers here regularly exceed thirty. That range is why the vegetation is thin and the light is so hard. The Rail Trail passes close by at Omakau.

Highlights

• The 1886 post office - still operating, among the oldest in use.
• The schist and mudbrick row - courthouse, gaol and hotel.
• The 1880 suspension bridge - the Daniel O'Connell over the Manuherikia.
• The climate extremes - the second-lowest official temperature in the country, in July 1995.

When to go

Any season. April for autumn colour; winter for frost and the hoar-frost light that photographers come for. Summer is very hot and exposed.

Before you go

It is a village of fifty people - an hour covers it, and services are limited to the hotel. Winter is genuinely severe here. There is no shop.

Nearby

Omakau and the Rail Trail are three kilometres away; Alexandra and Clyde are south.

Key facts