Laying out the Otago Central Trail in four unmissable stops. Photos / Alexia Santamaria
Laying out the Otago Central Trail in four unmissable stops. Photos / Alexia Santamaria
Alexia Santamaria finds four top reasons the Central Otago Touring Route should be your next South Island trip
At the end of last year, a new touring route was launched in Central Otago. And before exploring it personally, I didn't really know what that really meant - the towns on it weren't new, neither were many of the attractions so what was actually being launched? That became abundantly clear when we spent five days following the big brown "Central Otago Touring Route" roadsigns from Queenstown to Dunedin in a campervan - and discovered things we would never have known about had they not been part of the mapped-out trail. I'm now telling anyone who will listen that this needs to be their next holiday and here are four out of 2078 reasons it should be yours too.
The Central Otago Touring Route can claim some of the South Island's prettiest scenery. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Bookended by larger tourist centres Queenstown and Dunedin, The Central Otago Touring Route provides the perfect pace for a holiday. Our city kids loved the madness and adrenaline of bigger attractions such as the Oxbow Adventure Company's all-terrain off-roaders and jet sprint boats (a must for anyone who likes a bit of a thrill) but were equally fascinated by tiny Clyde and its historic building charm.
It was great for them to start and end with big tourist attractions - getting up close with seals and penguins with Nature's Wonders Argo tours in Dunedin was a definite highlight - but to also spend a couple of days in places where the pace was slower (no kids, there's no Westfield mall in Naseby). If you have a group who could do with some time away from traffic, pinging phones, Xboxes and retail distraction, this is the perfect road trip.
The Sutton Salt Lake in Middlemarch. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Stunning scenic beauty
The Central Otago Touring Route is drop-dead gorgeous and the number of times you will want to stop your campervan for photos of plummeting gorges, turquoise rivers or rolling green pastures set against a backdrop of soaring ranges will be more than you could ever have imagined.
The Roxburgh Gorge is stunning any time of the year, but especially in autumn. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
Our usually vocal family was stunned into silence at paths carpeted in gold leaves leading to the serene pebble-covered riverbank of the Roxburgh Gorge and sat awestruck at the postcard-like reflections of its glassy waters. When we stopped near Middlemarch to walk round New Zealand's only inland salt lake, we felt like we'd been transported into a sci-fi movie where a sage alien could pop out from behind one of the rock sentinels dotting the landscape at any time.
That old cliche about it not being about the destination, but enjoying the journey is totally true of this route. Watching the snaking highway vanish into a blue and snow-capped horizon out our motorhome window was a daily exercise in awe.
Find insanely good oak-barrel smoked meats cooked in barrels at Cromwell's The Stoaker Room. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
The food
This piggy city girl gets a bit nervous every time she heads out of the big smoke. Good food is important on any trip and not all smaller towns in New Zealand dazzle on this front. This was not an issue on the Central Otago Touring Route.
We were totally blown away by what we ate over five days - from fab cocktails and pan-Asian delights at Blue Kanu and tacos on the go from Taco Medic in Queenstown; to insanely good smoked meats cooked in French oak pinot noir barrels at The Stoaker Room in Cromwell; to some of tastiest falafel we've ever had at Pitches Store in Ophir; to locally raised Maniototo Provenance Lamb at the Royal Naseby Hotel to Scandinavian joys and classy bistro eats at Adjo
and No7 Balmac respectively, in Dunedin.
Between this and making sure we sampled as many cheese rolls as we could, our clothes were slightly more snug on the return flight.
Travel through Central Otago and some of the South Island's prettiest scenery. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
The history
So much of the evolution of this part of New Zealand was a direct result of the gold rush of the later 1800s. Towns were erected to house prospectors and the subsequent merchants who came to help avail them of their newly-earned riches. While original settlements were slung together from whatever materials were on hand, more solid - and charming - buildings followed and many have been well-preserved to this day.
It's worth reading up on it all (or visiting the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown) before you head off, as places like Cromwell, Clyde and Ophir are even more fascinating when you have the lowdown on their gold-tinged past.
The Central Otago Touring Route takes you from Dunedin to Queenstown (or vice versa) through some of the South Island's prettiest scenery. Photo / Alexia Santamaria
The verdict
If the 341km Central Otago Touring Route's goal was to encourage New Zealanders to discover areas slightly off the beaten track, and inspire people to explore this region's fascinating charms in more depth, it's achieved that several times over. Five days was great but there was plenty enough to do for an even longer stay; we'd go back tomorrow to discover even more.
CHECKLIST: CENTRAL OTAGO
GETTING THERE Air New Zealand and Jetstar fly daily into Queenstown and out of Dunedin from all main centres.
ACCOMMODATION A campervan is the perfect way to see this region and our Maui six-berther was the ideal accommodation on wheels for truly enjoying the Central Otago Touring Route. We stopped for the night at Queenstown Holiday Park & Motels Creeksyde, Clyde Holiday Park, Naseby Holiday Park and Dunedin Holiday Park and Motels.
