Wine growing in this area dates back to the 1860’s when a French gold miner Jean Feraud established the Monte Christo Winery in Clyde and at the same time, Italian gold miner Luigi Valli was making wine at Como Villa near Alexandra. These days the area is home a number of vineyards and wineries, including Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks Wine – which is rather lovely! We stayed at Como Villa and had a tasting of their wines. Visiting here is like stepping back in time as the current owners have lovingly restored the original house, built by Thomas Oliver, the wine cellar and the blacksmith’s forge.

Clyde and Alexandra both have really interesting histories and make for a great visit. We had a look at the Clyde Hydro Dam which was built as part of Robert Muldoon’s ‘Think Big’ projects. We discovered Three Peaks Coffee https://neatplaces.co.nz/places/central-otago/eat-drink/three-peaks-coffee where we had amazing flat whites, a great date scone and a rather yummy ham & cheese toastie, all the while enjoying the view over the Clutha River. Autumn here is really beautiful and the leaves are changing colour which makes the views very special.

This area is also the driest part of New Zealand with only 300mm of rain each year. We had a walk at Flat Top Hill https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/flat-top-hill-conservation-area/things-to-do/butchers-dam-loop-track/ where you can see just how dry the land is. It really was quite amazing.