Good fun for kids and young-at-heart travellers, Shantytown is a recreated 1860s gold-mining town, 10km south of Greymouth. Peer inside a church, a tavern, a hospital and a Chinese encampment, all painstakingly crafted to evoke the spirit of the era. Take cheesy souvenir pics in period costume and try gold-panning ($7), but the highlight is a steam train ride into the bush (five to seven daily, last departure 4pm).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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1. Monteith’s Brewing Co

5.75 MILES

The original Monteith's brewhouse is the HQ for this nationally famous beer brand: glossy and a wee bit corporate, but it delivers a high-quality…

2. History House Museum

6.13 MILES

When we passed through, this pictorial museum of Greymouth's gold rush days was closed indefinitely, to allow the handsome 1924 building to undergo…

3. Left Bank Art Gallery

6.19 MILES

A wide community of West Coast artists is represented in this former bank, which displays contemporary NZ prints, paintings, photographs, jewellery and…

4. Glowworm Dell

15.95 MILES

At nightfall, bring a torch (or grope your way) into this grotto on the northern edge of town, signposted off SH6. The dell is an easy opportunity to…

6. St Mary's Catholic Church

16.69 MILES

This handsome Catholic church, completed in 1928, could only be admired from the outside when we passed through, due to earthquake-strengthening…

7. Formerly the Blackball Hilton

16.69 MILES

Blackball's major talking point is this century-old pub, once known as the Dominion. When it was renamed in the 1990s, a certain global hotel chain got…

8. National Kiwi Centre

16.78 MILES

Tiptoe through the darkened kiwi house to watch the birds rummage for tasty insects, or stare a tuatara – a reptile unchanged for 150 million years – in…