Alexandra, New Zealand

Alexandra is a town in Central Otago on the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated at 180 m above sea level and near the village of Clyde on the banks of the Clutha River, which flows along there with the Manuherikia River, and at the 2006 census had 4824 inhabitants. The city is the largest city in Central Otago.

The area belongs to those in New Zealand, which is farthest from the sea, and therefore experienced as one of the few regions of a continental climate with harsh winters and hot, dry summers.

History

At the time of the Otago gold rush in the 1860s, Alexandra was born, but was initially called Lower Dunston, Junction Township or Manurherikia. Later it was named after the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who had in 1863 the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII married.

After the first known gold deposits were exploited, there was a second to Alexandra Gold Rush, in which the dredged river sediments of the Clutha River and its tributaries looking for another gold deposits. These extensions of the riverbed are now used as reservoirs and irrigation channels for the orchards. First of all stone fruits (especially apricots) has become a lucrative industry, and is nowadays celebrated with a blossom festival, the Alexandra Blossom Festival every year in the spring.

Another industry, in recent years, added the wine. With the Black Ridge Vineyard it is to concern the southernmost region in the world.

Worth seeing in Alexandra are a " wobbly " bridge dating from 1879, for many the symbol of the city, the Sir William Bodkin museum, showing the usual methods of gold mining, and the Tucker Hill Lookout, from where a good view of the Set amidst green fruit trees town has.

Traffic

Between 1906 and 1990, Alexandra was connected through the Otago Central Railway to the New Zealand rail network. The former railway embankment is now used as Otago Central Rail Trail.

In the urban area of ​​the State Highway 85 meets (also called "The Pigroot " ) on State Highway 8