Tokarahi is a small village located in the

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

region of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Its location is a rural setting in the Waiareka Valley, inland from Oamaru. Economic activity is focused on agriculture.

History

Tokarahi was first a large sheep station owned by John Borton (1826–1916) and Alexander McMaster (1823–1885). Together with their Maerewhenua run their holdings were: freehold 13,000 acres and leasehold 70,000 acres. They ran 70,000 sheep when they ended their partnership in 1887, McMaster taking Tokarahi. A large portion, 11,000 acres or 4,500 hectares, was acquired by the government for close settlement in 1894. Holdings were given to 79 farmers. Borton's property at Maerewhenua was bought the following year. For a number of decades, Tokarahi served as the terminus of one arm of the Ngapara and Tokarahi Branches, two connected branch line railways built to open up Oamaru's hinterland and encourage farming development. After the first line was opened to Ngapara in 1877, a side-branch was built to Tokarahi and opened in 1887. Its construction was partly used to provide work for those unemployed due to the Long Depression. For much of the Tokarahi Branch's history, a "mixed" train of both goods and passengers would run return to Oamaru daily. This service met a similar train from Ngapara at Windsor Junction, where it formed a dedicated passenger train and a freight train that followed at a slower pace. The reverse of this procedure took place in the afternoon. Trains to and from Tokarahi were often hauled by NZR T class, T class steam locomotives. Tokarahi became one of the first places on the Rail transport in New Zealand, national rail network to lose its passenger service, with a bus replacement introduced in 1926. Due to its small population, low economic activity, and proximity to the Ngapara arm of the railway, Tokarahi lost its railway entirely only a few years later. The line was closed on 14 July 1930. Very little today survives of the town's railway depot. The Elephant Rocks area around the village was used as the location for Aslan, Aslan's encampment in the 2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, film adaptation of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', one of the Narnia books written by the United Kingdom, British author C.S. Lewis.Filming locations for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
/ref>

References

External links

– contains a map and brief history of the Ngapara and Tokarahi Branches {{Waitaki District Populated places in Otago Waitaki District