PART 12: CENTRAL OTAGO

Jade, gold and now some wonderful wines – this spectacular part of New Zealand has always had charms. Let’s drink to that, says Victoria Moore

‘Tribes came up here for jade, the local greenstone,” says winemaker Nick Mills as we drive towards Lake Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island. “They had a high inland camp that was a place of rest and education. Then, in 1836, the warring chieftain Te Puoho came down the exposed west coast with over 100 warriors in a war canoe, found a local community, took some slaves as a guide, and wiped the valley clean. The place wasn’t settled again for a while after that. Anything that came here had to fly or swim. There were no mammals save for bats and seals.”

It isn’t difficult to imagine this landscape without people in it. Vines have a habit of civilising the most extreme of places, but much of Otago – the wine region is Central Otago – still feels as wild as it is beautiful. Snowy mountain peaks rise out of a landscape of weathered rock. Even under a grey sky the rivers are a piercing turquoise.

The wine pioneers planted vines here in the Seventies, but it was only in this century the industry really accelerated. Today Central Otago, or “Central” as it is known, is famous for the quality of its pinot noir and contains around 125 wine producers. It is also home to the town of Alexandra, a 50mile (80km) drive south of Wanaka, which is not just the hottest, coldest, highest, driest place in the country but also officially classified as semi-desert.

And, close to Alexandra, are the most southerly vineyards in New Zealand – owned by the Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill whose Two Paddocks winery is sadly only visitable if you are a member of the Two Paddocks club. (Trivia collectors will be wondering if they are the most southerly in the world and the answer is that they once were but both Chile and Argentina now have experimental contenders.)

The Otago landscape is so spectacular that in recent years it has proved a huge draw to both domestic and international tourists. Wanaka – in living memory a small settlement with a population of 400 servicing local farmers – is now a resort town, and a hugely popular place for wealthy Aucklanders to buy their holiday homes.

Today people are drawn to Otago for the chance to relax amid spectacular surroundings or to visit the places that provided the backdrop to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy adaptations. But in the late 19th century the draw was gold. The Otago gold rush peaked in the 1860s, and it’s estimated that two million ounces of gold – most of it alluvial – were taken by June 1867. But because the winters in Otago are harsh, the ebb and flow of the population meant that the money didn’t stay, leaving the place almost as isolated as it was before they came. The draw now, apart from the scenery, is the wine – here is where to get the best of it.

It is famous for the quality of its pinot noir and contains around 125 wine producers