"Ghost Towns Of The South Island New Zealand" Season-2 Episode-1 featuring the town of Waiuta 🇳🇿

Waiuta is the location of a historic mining town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is now abandoned and considered a ghost town. Located 58 km north of Greymouth and 21 km south of Reefton in Ikamatua, New Zealand, it was the site of a gold mine until 1951 when the collapse of the mine made it uneconomic. A number of buildings remain and there are still residents in what remains of the town.[citation needed] Nowadays Waiuta has become a tourist attraction, with few of the original buildings still intact that include the former police station, three cottages and the old barber shop.[1] The town of Waiuta was developed to provide accommodation for workers in the goldmine.[2] The Birthday Quartz Reef was named after the date it was found: 9 November 1905 was King Edward VII’s birthday . The first mineshaft operated in 1908 called the Blackwater Shaft and was 563 m in depth. The mine was extended in 1926 with the acquisition of the adjacent Blackwater North claim, which was renamed the Prohibition. The Prohibition shaft took over in 1938 and reached 879 m deep.[3] The mine eventually produced almost 750,000 ounces of gold. Because of the expansion of the mine, more workers began to settle in the area. At first, people kept wanting to rent houses as they were unsure how long the mine was last. However, when the mine was well established by the early 1920s, workers were more willing to build houses and own shops. The area had eventually turned from a mine to a prosperous, growing town. Waiuta started to look less like a mining camp.[4] Even though Waiuta had few residents, many people enjoyed playing outdoor sports, with rugby being the main sport.