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The Old White Horse Hotel is iconic Central Otago with its exterior restoration a credit to the Becks community. But what makes this building so intriguing is where it is; exactly half way between the Equator and the South Pole. We know this because the hotel straddles the 45th Parallel. Mind you, we’re not too sure if John Nixon Beck was privy to this when he commissioned the building of the stacked stone hotel in 1864.

The 45th Parallel is a good point of reference to appreciate just how much the Rail Trail zigs and zags through valleys and around mountain ranges. The trail crosses the 45th Parallel once near Oturehua and again just out of Wedderburn.

For a great many of its earliest years the village of Becks revolved around the White Horse Hotel. There was a village hall nearby, tennis courts and just down the road towards Lauder a smithy. Remains of this can still be seen.
The wooden addition to the hotel was built in the early 1880’s to create relatively salubrious accommodation for weary travellers. From a publication of the time, ‘Cylopedia of New Zealand’ …’The hotel has 10 bedrooms, two sitting rooms, commodious dining room where sixteen guests can be seated. The buildings are of stone, wood and iron and include a stable with eight stalls’. Remnants of the stables can be seen along the fence on the Lauder side of the building.

The Old White Horse Hotel is very much an ongoing project with the Becks/St Bathans community working towards conserving and restoring the interior. Meanwhile the ‘new’ White Horse Hotel built on the opposite side of the road in 1925 is a wonderful opportunity for Rail Trailers to rub shoulders with locals. The hotel runs free pick up and delivery to Lauder for Rail Trailers.

Original White Horse Hotel at the turn of last century.	Original White Horse Hotel not long after the turn of this century.

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