Product Overview

Visit Tohu Whenua, our nation's most treasure heritage places. These are places that have shaped Aotearoa New Zealand. Located in stunning landscapes and rich with stories, they offer some of our best heritage experiences. 

Product Description

Otago’s Tohu Whenua are places that tell stories of our people’s pioneering spirit - some of the cornerstones of our economic and entrepreneurial livelihood. Fame, fortune and farming - understand how we have prospered as a nation. Experience the innovations and inventions born out of necessity, the wealth evident of an era, and appreciate the industries that set us up to be the self-reliant country we are today.

T.S.S. Earnslaw | Sail aboard the TSS Earnslaw, which is one of the world’s oldest and largest remaining steamships and has graced Lake Wakatipu since 1912.

Arrowtown | Visit this thriving picture-postcard tourist town and view both sides of the gold-rush: the preserved avenue where wealthy banks and merchants traded in the mid-1800s, and the restored huts on the edge of town that reveal the more modest lifestyles of Chinese miners.

Kawarau Suspension Bridge | Jump, cycle or walk the bridge and marvel at the extraordinary feat of design which in 1882 won Harry Higginson a top world engineering award for his innovative design. 

Bannockburn Sluicings | Take a walk through a spectacular man-made landscape of cliffs and pinnacles where you can still see the remains of dams, tunnels, walls and water races that were built to flush out gold.

Otago Central Rail Trail | Cycle New Zealand's original Great Ride, which follows a former railway and offers a taste of genuine Southern hospitality.

Hayes Engineering Works and Homestead | Explore the home of 'Kiwi ingenuity', where Ernest Hayes invented agricultural labour-saving devices including the fence-fixing wire strainer, rabbit baiters and windmills.

Historic Ōamaru | Visit this atmospheric precinct of ornately carved stone buildings that tells of Victorian hopes and dreams during the late 19th century boom years.

Totara Estate | Wander through this once grand estate from where the first shipment of frozen mutton was sent to England, marking the start of an export industry that has underpinned New Zealand’s economic prosperity.

Dunedin Railway Station | Step inside Dunedin's ornate and flamboyant railway station, which is today considered one of the world’s best. 

Olveston | Take a guided tour of this Edwardian mansion and see how the wealthy Theomin family lived from 1906-1966, surrounded by a vast array of fine art, furniture and artefacts collected from around the world.

Larnach Castle | Visit Dunedin's famous lavishly-restored castle which was built for William Larnach in the 1870s and spared no expense. 

Company Info

Tohu Whenua is a network of Aotearoa New Zealand's most treasured heritage places that visitors of all ages can enjoy. Tohu Whenua connects New Zealanders and visitors with our heritage and enhances our sense of national identity by promoting significant historical and cultural sites. 

Tohu Whenua is a partnership between Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai and Ministry for Culture and Heritage Manatū Taonga.