About
Otematata is a lovely small little popular holiday destination. It is home to very many New Zealand style summer bachs. It is only home to 183 permanent resisdents as of 2018 though the town has grown quite significantly in the last 5 years. The town fluctuates heavily over the summer months to over 5000 due to its warmer central Otago type heat in the summer as well as it being a very popular destination for boating and various water sports. With there being 2 huge lakes within a 5 minute drive in the form of Lake Benmore and Lake Avimore. There is also a number of other popular boating lakes within an hour drive up the road towards Twizel where the Secondary Schools National Rowing Competition is held every second year in lake Ruataniwha for example which can be seen as the turquoise coloured lake in the lake gallery page.
Benmore Damn can be seen pictured to the right of this text as you can see it is a very picturesque setting surrounding it. Little known fact about Benmore Damn is that is is actually the largest earth damn in the southern hemisphere. There is also a number of smaller sized ski fields in the general area of Otematata which can attract people to the town in the winter though central otago ski fields are much larger in size.
History
The Otematata township was built in 1958 as a base for the construction of the Aviemore and Benmore Dams. All original houses and bachs were built for housing for the workers on the damn at the time. There is actually many pictures of the damn being built in the local pub.