Duntroon celebrated the official opening of the Vanished World Centre's redeveloped Rock Room on Sunday afternoon.
What was a cold, open, draughty and concrete-floored space at the back of the centre, is now a carpeted, warm and modern Rock Room as part of the popular tourist attraction highlighting North Otago's fossils and geological features.
It was the last room of the building, once a general store and butchery, to be renovated since the centre was opened.
''It's a huge improvement. It's made the whole building much more comfortable to work in ... it's so great to get it done,'' Vanished World Society secretary Christine Hall said.
An official opening event was a chance for the Vanished World Society to thank sponsors and volunteers who continue to offer invaluable support to keep the facility open.
A grant from Meridian made renovations of the Rock Room possible and most of the building work was done by Neil Thorpe, of Duntroon.
Mr Thorpe was not present at the official opening and Vanished World Society committee member Paula Eatherley said it was a shame he could not be there to be acknowledged publicly.
''But he's not that sort of person. He does it for the love of it. He's very passionate about the Vanished World and geology in general and, in fact [he is not present] because he's down the Brewery Hole with some divers,'' she said.
The Vanished World project started about 12 years ago, in the wake of Prof Ewan Fordyce's work in the Waitaki Valley area collecting fossils, including those of whales, sharks, dolphins and penguins, to study at the University of Otago.
Mrs Eatherley said various locals who had come across Prof Fordyce's work, expressed interest in doing something to raise public awareness about the geology of the Waitaki district.
''They said, well hang on a minute, we see these large blocks going away on a truck and that's the end of it. We don't know what happens to them after that. It'd be nice if people in the district could appreciate them,'' she said.
A committee of 12 volunteers was formed and they have been meeting once a month ever since to run Vanished World as an incorporated society.
Volunteers had devoted ''countless'' hours of their time to establish the Vanished World Centre at Duntroon in the heart of the Vanished World Trail with a shop and displays that help explain and interpret the fossils, rocks, localities and landforms along the Vanished World Trail.
''You just couldn't possibly count how many volunteer hours have gone in to keeping this place open for 12 years now,'' she said.
''We're tremendously proud of what we've achieved.''
The society was ''so excited'' about what the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail could offer it in terms of visitor numbers.
Their challenge was to make cyclists aware of what the centre, and Duntroon, had to offer, to make them stop and spend money.
''We would like, in the future, to think that this organisation will develop further and be one of the premier tourism attractions in North Otago,'' she said.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher congratulated the society on a ''great'' achievement.
