Tokarahi

Tokarahi is a tiny district which straddles the Otago and Canterbury imaginary border, a bit south of Duntroon.

Tokarahi is also a true to it's name as Toka means rock, and virtually everything here is about rocks and stones or various types. For a start there is the Tokarahi Lime works, a remnant of the quarrying past of the wider region, which has dwindled away to not much and this is a bit of what's left. The entirity of Tokarahi township is simply a unique 1903 community hall, built out of stone and bearing up very well as a result. The war memorial is out front and a couple of houses are either side.

A relevant dot on the landscape is a curious set of Toka (Rocks) columns which are vaguely explained by a plaque beside their location on 'Dip Hill Road'. Dip Hill Road goes from the tiny town by the limeworks, to the homestead of the historic Tokarahi station, which is an architectural anomaly here, the reddish sandstone probably being from New South Wales by way of ship's ballast, the villa bearing a wider, Australian style of verandah. The architect was T C Dennison.

We are calling the Homestead, along with it's historic woolshed, stables, cookshop and mens quarters, a 'virtual attraction', as it is a private and working farm, though not as large as it used to be. Oamaru architects of note had a hand in the design of these agricultural buildings, in about 1878.

Tokarahi, was at that stage a massive 70,000 acre sheep run, but the government got involved and a portion was split between 79 new farmers in 1894. Government wanted to encourage settlement further out from Oamaru, and had already (1877) begun a rail branch which was finished in 1887. This only lasted until 1930, as the new roads, busses and trucks easily overtook the rail. A groovy remnant of the old rail line is Raki's Tunnel, which is now used by cyclists on the Alps to Ocean ride. Carefully crafted from blocks of Oamaru Stone, and aged to perfection, the construction of the tunnel has a bit in common with the oldest of the Tokarahi station buildings and others in the district.

Another set of rocks nearby are named Elephant Rocks, which formed a filmset for the Chronicles of Narnia.

Image Credit: Real Estate.co.nz and Google Maps