2010 with an asking price of NZ$1.5 million. No bids were received but it remained on the market. When advertised again in 2013 the sale price had dropped to NZ$1 million, and it sold the following year to Lester Rowntree for an undisclosed sum, although as at 2020 the Hennahs still own the ex-school building and swimming pool. Not far from the hotel (originally opened in 1902 but rebuilt following a fire in 1911) is the former post office which was built in 1952 to replace an earlier one. This has been refurbished into an art gallery known as the 'John Burns Gallery of Modern Art'. The complex exhibits world class art which is a surprise to many visitors, housed as it is in the middle of the Southern Alps. The former postmaster's house also survives. Heading up the valley, there are a number of houses dotted along the highway. Rata Lodge Backpackers is situated near Goat Creek and provides alternative accommodation to the Otira Stagecoach Hotel. When the tunnel opened in 1923, traction power for the Otira to Arthur's Pass electrified section was provided by a steam-driven generating station known as the 'Power House' — a large imposing building which included a big shed and repair workshop for the electric locomotives. The steam generating plant closed in July 1941, with the source of power then coming from the newly-constructed transmission line from Lake Coleridge to the West Coast. This involved building a transformer substation at Otira, along with a rectifier substation at the tunnel mouth. Staffing required at the Otira substation meant four houses were built, two of which still survive. Meanwhile the old power house has been demolished. Close to the town are two major feats of civil engineering: the Otira Tunnel, and the Otira Viaduct. Otira Viaduct The Otira viaduct is to the south of Otira, between Otira and the Arthur's Pass summit. Completed in 1999 by McConnell Smith Pty Ltd, the four-span viaduct carries State Highway 73 over a stretch of unstable land, replacing a narrow, winding, dangerous section of road that was prone to avalanches, slips and closures. One person, Tony Western, 25, was killed during construction in July 1998 when a chain failed and a pump fell on him. A plaque was installed in his memory in the base of the westernmost pier. Demographics The statistical area of Hokitika Valley-Otira, which at 1,615 square