Dunedin sparkled on Saturday as "settlers" aboard tall ship Steadfast were welcomed.
Hundreds gathered at the Birch St wharf to watch Invercargill Town Crier Gretchen Mark-Dear herald the settlers' arrival.
The Layers of Gold anniversary weekend commemorates 150 years since the discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully.
Settlers adorned in a mixture of cabin-class finery and urchin street garb clambered up to the wharf on a ladder.
From there they went by horse and carriage to Shantytown - a makeshift mining camp set up in the Octagon.
Visitors wandered through the spectacle enjoying the sights, sounds, and pastimes of the 1860s.
Dunedin Heritage Festival Director Sue Clarke was delighted with the turnout and the warm sunny weather after less-than-clement forecasts.
She estimated up to 500 people welcomed the settlers ashore, and up to 1000 visited Shantytown.
Ms Clarke paid tribute to Globe Theatre actors and Images of the Past for recreating the characters and dress of 1860s Otago.
"It really did take you back, [with scenes like] the preacher being harassed by a drunken miner."
