Alexandra (Māori: Manuherikia[4][5] or Areketanara[6]) is a town in the Central Otago district of the South Island of New Zealand.

State highway 85 also connects Alexandra to Omakau, Lauder, Oturehua, Ranfurly and on to Palmerston on the East Otago coast.

In order to obtain the government's reward on offer for gold discoveries, they made the site public.

If the dredging hit hard rock, it interrupted the power supply to Alexandra and the lights of the entire town dimmed.

Many orchards were destroyed in the 1980s as a result of construction, 10 km upstream, of the Clyde High Dam, which is the country's third largest hydroelectric power station.

[15] The town is a popular holiday destination mainly due to the hot and sunny climate during summer.

[33] Alexandra is the service centre for a significant stone-fruit industry, which is celebrated by a blossom festival in the town each spring.

[34] Now, nectarines, apricots, cherries, peaches, plums and apples are grown and sold for both New Zealand and export markets.

Commercial passenger flights are no longer scheduled; Queenstown International Airport is the nearest facility for those.

The Festival celebrates the advent of Spring in the Central Otago District as evidenced by the blooming of the fruit trees.

Sixty rabbits were introduced by the Acclimatisation Society of Otago in 1866 and it only took five years for them to get established and to start eating the pasture land bare.

[56] An outdoor Olympic sized ice rink in Molyneux Park is run by the Alexandra Winter Sports Club.

The main cause of air pollution in Alexandra is from domestic heating appliances that burn solid fuels (e.g. wood and coal).

The results from a study show that sub-freezing temperatures and still wind conditions at 8 am or 9 am can be used to predict high levels of PM10 that evening.

This, combined with its geography, being an inland basin, means that the smoke generated from domestic heating appliances stays sitting within the town environs.

[76] Pupils at Alexandra primary school were helping scientists at NIWA learn more about pollution in their town in a four-month project that will track where smoke comes from and where it goes over winter in 2018.

[77] Alexandra had three high pollution nights, where PM10 particulate levels exceeded the national environmental standards, in winter 2021.

[78] The Shaky bridge crosses the Manuherikia river and links Kerry Street and Graveyard Gully Road.

Simmond's boarding house was built in 1882 and provided accommodation for over ninety years until it was converted into an office building in the 1970s.

[83] The old courthouse located in Alexandra's Centennial Avenue was opened on 16 June 1879, it housed both the Warden's and Magistrate's Courts.

These included registration of claims and dealing with matters such as water races, business, licenses, roads, forgeries and other similar issues relating to mining.

This is now allowing native dryland vegetation to reestablish itself and a number of species of lizards and invertebrates to repopulate the sanctuary.

Lizards that are endemic to the area include the Otago skink which can grow up to 300mm in total length jewelled geckos have also been introduced to the sanctuary.

[96] Following Mediaworks corporate 2013 decision to move all Central Otago and Lakes District live broadcast activity to Queenstown, Alexandra was left without a local radio station until the creation of independently owned Classic Gold Central in September 2013 on Blossom Festival Weekend.

Tramsmitting from a co-site with Radio Rhema in the Waikerikeri Valley on 91.9FM, the station, owned by longtime broadcasters Chris Diack and Bill Willis, has re-established the service of providing local information for the district.

From the 1st of April 2018 Radio Central had transmitters located at Waikerikeri Valley (91.9), Cromwell (91.9), Roxburgh (94.3) and Wedderburn (104.3).

Independently owned radio station Blue Skies FM was established in 2001 to serve the local community, broadcasting to the Alexandra basin, Cromwell, the Maniototo, Teviot Valley and beyond.

Blue Skies FM ceased broadcasting at the end of September '08 following a move by Mediaworks, who successfully negotiated a deal to take on the frequency to rebroadcast its Easy Listening Brand, The Breeze.

Alexandra is now administered by the Central Otago District Council, with the current mayor being Tim Cadogan.

[17] Alexandra is currently part of the Southland electorate which was held in 2023 by Joseph Mooney of the National Party.