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Oturehua (The Sun God) is another of those ‘hard to believe’ townships on the Otago Central Rail Trail. It’s hard to believe that here was the biggest construction camp on the Otago Central Railway. It’s also hard to believe that just on the outskirts of town one of the icons of New Zealand farming was developed. To this day used on millions of kilometres of farm fencing throughout New Zealand, and exported worldwide, the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer was created and perfected inside the historic mud-brick buildings of Hayes Engineering (now owned by the Historic Places Trust and open seven days a week from 9am to 5pm December through April) by Ernest Hayes in 1927. Earlier in 1905, Ernest developed a breakthrough claw and chain fence wire strainer. The workshops, extensive grounds and grand mud-brick villa that was home to Ernest, his wife Hannah and their five sons and four daughters, are well worth visiting (2010's open operating days are on January 3, February 7 and April 11 --- Cost, $7 per person. Hayes family home open from Christmas onwards).

Just across from the Oturehua Station site is another ‘hard to believe’ experience, Gilchrist’s store. This is New Zealand’s oldest continuously operating general store selling everything a Rail Trailer could want with plenty of eye candy provided by display shelves of nostalgic ‘Kiwi’ products bearing long-gone brands.

Oturehua also has the Ida Burn Dam, famous for curling, and the hilltop paddock that draws motorcyclists from throughout New Zealand and overseas to the Annual Brass Monkey Motorcycle Rally.

At the other end of town, it’s just a few hundred metres detour up Reef Road to visit the Golden Progress Mine. Here Central Otago’s last poppet head straddles one of numerous shafts sunk to reach elusive gold-bearing quartz rock. Unfortunately Golden Progress never delivered its investors or workers anything approaching a fortune.

Oturehua is a good step off point for a visit to St Bathans, 25km by road.

Oturehua – Wedderburn

• 11km separates Oturehua from Wedderburn.
• Trail crosses 45 degrees South Latitude twice. Look for the concrete markers.
• Highest point on the Otago Central Rail Trail.
• Seagull 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.
• The trail climbs up the northern foot of Rough Ridge into the Maniototo Plains. Great views of the Hawkdun and Ida Ranges.
  

Oturehua - Ida Valley

• 7.8km separates Oturehua from Ida Valley Station site.
• Ida Valley 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.
• The trail provides a straight run through Ida Valley farmland.
  
  

A hoar frost late in June 2009 transforms Hayes Engineering into a magical landscape. The Historic Places Trust is currently restoring the mud-brick villa that was home to the large Hayes family.	It takes relatively few heavy frosts to turn the Ida Burn Dam into a popular skating rink. When the ice reaches 12.7 it is considered thick enough to call a national curling bonspiel.
New Zealand’s oldest continuously operating general store is a great place to while away an hour or so Photo: Matthew Sole	At Hayes Engineering Works the building on the left is where the Hayes family first lived. Very different accommodation to the elegant mud-brick villa they later lived in. The Historic Places Trust plans to restore the villa to provide an insight of domestic life in the early 1900s.
Central Otago's last poppet head stands over its 61-metre shaft at the Golden Progress Mine Photo: Matthew Sole

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