Waitaki Valley

The Waitaki Valley runs from the Southern Alps to the sea in a series of hydro lakes — Ōhau, Benmore, Ōsaka — and limestone terraces unlike anything else in New Zealand. The town of Ōamaru at the valley's mouth is a Victorian port city of extraordinary ambition, its public buildings raised in the local cream-white limestone and preserved in a state of improbable elegance. The steampunk movement found its natural home here.

Inland, the Waitaki wine region is the newest and perhaps most intriguing in New Zealand: high elevation, limestone soils, and a continental climate that is producing pinot noir and riesling that critics are taking very seriously. The limestone landscape continues north to the Māerewhenua — Maori Rock Art, painted in red ochre on limestone outcrops, is some of the most accessible ancient rock art in the southern hemisphere. The Waitaki River itself is among New Zealand's greatest salmon and trout rivers — private guided fishing here is an experience reserved for those who know to ask.