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It’s hard to imagine Chatto Creek of 1886 was home to some 800. There’s simply no evidence of where these railway construction and rabbit board workers and their families once lived. Though you can still get a taste of where their parched throats were refreshed at the 1886 mud-brick Chatto Creek Tavern. You can also mail a letter or postcard at New Zealand’s smallest post office dating back to 1892. Restored by the local community, which today numbers around 20, the post office has been relocated from near the Chatto Creek Station site to alongside the hotel.

Most of the railway construction workers living at Chatto Creek were employed building ‘Horseshoe Bends', a sweeping ‘S’ shape necessary to get trains up Tiger Hill without exceeding a 1 in 50 gradient. This is the steepest ascent/descent on the Rail Trail

Like Alexandra, Chatto Creek has produced some sizeable finds of Moa bones and eggshells.

Chatto Creek – Omakau

• 11.5km separates Chatto Creek from Omakau.
• Tiger Hill Gangers’ Shed… one of 12 gangers’ sheds along the Rail Trail housing information panels. These sheds are identified with an ‘i’ on the map in the Official Rail Trail Passport.
• From Tiger Hill it’s an easy ride or walk to Omakau through extensive sheep farming country kept productive by irrigation.
  

Chatto Creek - Galloway

• 10 km separates Chatto Creek from Galloway.
• Olrig Gangers’ Shed… inside this red painted corrugated iron shed you’ll find the first or last (depending on which way your travelling the Rail Trail) of a series of information panels installed by the Otago Central Rail Trail Trust in 12 gangers’ sheds along the Trail.
• Manuherikia Bridge, a great place for spotting trout and viewing the remains of one of Central Otago’s earliest gold dredges.
• The trail runs through what could be described as typical schist and wild thyme country. You’ll soon work out which land is irrigated and which isn’t.
  

Chatto Creek is home to New Zealand smallest post office. Built in 1892 it has been restored by the local community Photo: Chris Lidgard	Inside the Chatto Creek Post Office there really is no room to swing a cat Photo: Chris Lidgard

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