For much of the second day of my road trip exploring Central Otago in New Zealand, I’ll travel alongside the famous Central Otago Rail Trail and fossick around the villages along this part of its journey.

First call was in Naseby, a town which did not rejoice at the coming of the railway early last century.

Below the Ida Range, tucked away in forestry surroundings, the village of Naseby is quite a charmer. The town used to be a major gold mining centre with as many as 5000 diggers working their fingers to the bone in search of riches.

It was, at that time, the administrative centre of the region, an important place with a courthouse, banks and county offices.

The railway, however, skirted the town by some distance and Ranfurly sprang up as the new centre of attention.

Naseby slowly slumbered off into irrelevancy but over recent years it … Read more

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