Macetown: The Ghost Town at the End of the Road

Macetown sits at the end of a rough track that follows the Arrow River deep into the mountains behind Arrowtown. To get there, you'll cross the river at least 25 times — often knee-deep in icy water. When you finally arrive, you'll find stone walls, rusted machinery, and the echoes of a town that time forgot.

The Rush Arrives

Gold was discovered in the Arrow River in 1862, and by the end of that year, more than 1,500 miners had set up camp along its banks. Many pushed further upstream, into the narrow valley that would become Macetown.

The town takes its name from the Mace brothers — John, Charles, and Harry — who were among the first to stake claims in the area. What they found was promising: decent alluvial gold in the river gravels, with hints of quartz reefs in the surrounding hills.

Boom and Bust

The easy gold — the stuff you could pan from the river — was largely exhausted by 1865. Many miners moved on to new discoveries on the West Coast, and Macetown might have been abandoned entirely.

But in the 1870s, quartz mining revived the town. Companies built stamper batteries to crush the gold-bearing rock, and Macetown entered its second act. By 1896, the population had reached 206 people — with a school, a church, two hotels, and even a creamery.

The Homeward Bound Stamper Battery — a four-story wooden structure used to crush quartz — still stands as a testament to this industrial era. It's one of the best-preserved examples of its kind in New Zealand.

The Long Decline

By the early 1900s, the gold was running out again. The remote location made operations expensive, and one by one, the families left. The school closed. The hotels shut their doors. By the 1930s, Macetown was a ghost town.

The last permanent resident, a miner named Jimmy Wilde, reportedly stayed until the 1940s — alone in a valley that had once echoed with stamper batteries and drunken miners.

Visiting Today

Macetown is now managed by the Department of Conservation, which has restored several historic buildings including Needham's House (the old schoolmaster's residence) and the bakehouse. The town is accessible by 4WD, mountain bike, or on foot — the 15km track from Arrowtown takes about 4-5 hours to walk.

There's no fossicking permitted at Macetown itself, but the lower Arrow River near Arrowtown is a designated fossicking area. Many visitors combine a Macetown trip with a morning of panning.