Daily Photo – Oturehua

I found Oturehua tucked quietly into the heart of the Ida Valley. With a population of a little over one hundred, it felt as though time had politely slowed down just enough for me to notice the hills, the wide skies, and the gentle hum of a quiet Central Otago town.

I arrived at rush hour. Four or five utes were parked outside the Railway Hotel, a family wagon idled off into the distance, a family of five emerged from Gilchrist’s General Store, and a group of cyclists enthusiastically inspected their machinery on a nearby patch of grass – no doubt about to tackle another section of the famed Rail Trail.

I parked and called in at Gilchrist’s General Store, famous for being one of New Zealand’s oldest continually operating general stores. It’s the type of place that time has forgotten, but nobody else has. It’s like a living museum; as soon as you step inside you’re transported back in time, free to rummage through the shelves for all sorts of quirky goods while vintage advertising signs decorate the walls. I wandered around, reading the old signs and enjoying the endearing elegance of a place that has no right to be as charming as it is. Behind the counter stood a ladder, reaching to the higher shelves. It’s wasn’t hard to imagine a whimsical shopkeeper climbing the ladder behind the counter, then pushing himself to the other end of the display, the ladder gliding smoothly along the shelves on its clever wheel runners. Throughout the store, not only are there old signs, tins, and packaging to admire and reminisce over, but the original telephone exchange is still in place. If that isn’t enough, between the 1920s and the 1940s the business also incorporated a bakery that employed up to 12 people.

Yet Gilchrist’s General Store, the Railway Hotel, the Rail Trail, or even Hayes Engineering are not the most remarkable things about this tiny settlement. The real surprise is that, for a town of just over 100 residents, two have won New Zealand Heritage Literary Awards for poetry. The settlement regularly hosts literary and artistic events such as the Under Rough Ridge Writers’ Retreat, and the wider community is home to a remarkable concentration of writers, poets, and other artists. Without the world noticing, Oturehua has become a creative hub in rural Central Otago, far from the country’s urban centres.

I went for a walk up and down the street where the main cluster of buildings stood. I can’t even call them shops, because mostly they weren’t. I don’t mean that in a rude way – just as a statement of fact. Yet the strange thing was, the longer I stayed, the more the place grew on me. It had no right to. There didn’t seem to be enough there. Yet – and here’s the kicker – it was more than enough.