New Zealand's best known (and most used) rail trail runs along the formation of the Otago Central Branch Railway which ran from the port of Dunedin to the Otago goldfields. Construction commenced in 1879 and – one hundred bridges and thirteen tunnels later – was completed 1921.

The line's useful life was not much longer than its construction period. Closure came in 1990 but a 77km section from Dunedin north to Middlemarch (terminus of the rail trail) operates as the Taieri Gorge Railway with regular departures.