A sign at the end of its main street welcomes visitors into the historic gold-mining town. Ophir’s population swelled to 1000 at its peak in the 1860s, but now has between 50 and 100 residents. Until 1875 it was named Blacks, after sheep-run holder...
Ophir Post Office visitor host Val Butcher invites visitors to peruse the memorabilia inside.‘‘Tourists like to come in and have a look around. But a fair amount still use it as a post office. We get a lot of postcards.’’The historic building is open...
Holidaymaker Michael Lorimer flings his line in the Manuherikia River by Ophir’s Daniel O’Connell Bridge.
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Food and beverage manager Abhyeet Sidhu brews up a flat white at Pitches Store.The hotel, restaurant and cafe had been housed in the historic building for five years. "The new owners decided to fix it up. Before that it was fairly run down and...
The Ophir Police Lockup waits for visitors to walk through its dusty cells. Built in 1900, the small wooden building was originally located down the road, outside what was then the local policeman’s house. It moved to Omakau in the late 1940s when a...
Through its preservation of historic buildings, Ophir, about 2km from Omakau, remains a relic of the gold-mining era. Central Otago reporter Jono Edwards visits some of its architectural gems.
