Clyde Area Guide
The historic gold mining village of Clyde, 10 kilometres north west of Alexandra, is a lovely place to explore the past, its streets lined with old stone and wooden buildings now transformed into cafes and comfy travellers' lodgings.
On Sunderland Street, the two-storied Dunstan House, which once hosted weary travellers stepping off the Cobb and Co stagecoach, has been made over as a boutique bed and breakfast, while the original gold assay office is now a backpackers' hostel. The historic miners' General Store, built of stone in 1863, has become the civilised Oliver's Restaurant, with lodge accommodation in the adjacent stables and smokehouse.
Since the mid-1980s, the name Clyde has been synonymous with the controversial great grey hydro-electric Clyde Dam, a kilometre north of town. The dam, finally opened in 1994, is the largest concrete gravity dam in New Zealand, with special slip joints designed to allow it to withstand earthquakes. The artificial Lake Dunstan created by the dam is a good place for boating and fishing.
Clyde has three well-kept museums within easy walking distance. The Clyde Museum in the old stone courthouse on Blyth Street contains relics of the town's early goldmining days, including fascinating coverage of the Great Gold Robbery of 1870, when a thief made off with £13,000 in gold bullion and banknotes. The Briar Herb Factory at the corner of Fraser and Fache Streets was set up in the 1930s to process the thyme which still grows wild in the area, and is now preserved as a museum. Next door, the former Clyde Railway Station has been made over into the Station Museum, with a collection of vintage locomotives.
From Clyde, there are beautiful mountain biking and four-wheel-drive trails through the beautiful, barren Central Otago hills. The Dunstan Trail, a rugged 175-kilometre mountain road, follows the trail of the early gold prospectors from Dunedin to the Dunstan Goldfields over the Lammermoor, Rock and Pillar, Rough Ridge, and Raggedy mountain ranges. This beautiful trail can be traversed by mountain bike or four-wheel-drive vehicle, although part of the road is closed in winter.
Clyde is at the western end of the Otago Central Rail Trail, a spectacular 150-kilometre cycle trail between Clyde and Middlemarch built on the trackbed of the old Otago Central Branch railway line. The trail passes wonderful inland scenery, over hills, through gorges and past old gold mining sites. The helpful folks at Trail Journeys at the Clyde Railhead rent bikes and kayaks, store vehicles, transport gear, and organise guided trips.