Lauder is a small settlement in the Otago Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located in Central Otago, 8 km northeast of Omakau, on the main route between Alexandra and Ranfurly, State Highway 85. The settlement was named after the town of the same name in southern Scotland,[1] one of many Otago sites to be named after places in the Scottish borders by John Turnbull Thomson.[2]
Lauder had a station on the former Otago Central Railway, now defunct, and served as a railway servicing town from the time the rails reached the town in 1904.[2] It remains a popular stopover on the Otago Central Rail Trail.[3] Lauder is the closest settlement to the Poolburn Gorge, a popular sight on the rail trail.